It really isnt hard IMO. We swath graze and stockpile graze so no need to start a tractor through the winter, sometimes to get out to them to check em. All our land is already cross fenced into 40 acre parcels so for winter feeding all I gotta do is open a gate every week and a half. Cows start calving on grass May 1st. Our cows are located 45 miles north of our place on pasture, I drive up there once a day from May 1st - July 10th and spend on average 2-3 hours tagging new calves, drive back to the feedlot and feed or if we have hired help I stay at the ranch and fix fence, build fence and such. I check the cows twice a week through the summer, moving them from 40 acre parcel to 40 acre parcel. Our cows stockpile graze grass we havent grazed all summer through the fall and we wean our calves in early december, cows then go out onto the swaths and it starts all over again. We swath graze awnless barley mostly but the last few years we have been letting our second cut alfalfa grass grow till the first killing frost, then we swath it into 50ft double swaths and graze that when the snow gets to be a few inches deep. Next year we are gonna try drilling turnips into alfalfa and see if the cause any damage doing that. Right now I can run our feedlot, our cows and this summer we emptied the feedlot and I got 30 miles of new fence built on the ranch and ripped out 10 miles of the old stuff. Have another 10-15 miles of old stuff to rip out and around another 25 miles of new fence to put up next summer. 4 strand electric perimeter fences and 2 strand electric cross fences.
All of our land is in a block so moving cows is a one man with a quad and a dog job. I put a temporary single strand wire across the road where I need the cows to turn in if I am moving them across or down roads and with fences on both sides one guy can easily move 600 pairs from one pasture to the next. Only time I need help is branding, weaning, and the occasional time someone to help catch something that needs to go home or has gotten out. Dad runs our cattle buying business and "oversees" the feedlot operations. Takes 4 guys 2 days to catch, brand, vaccinate and sort into breeding fields the cows we have now. And thats with a portable working chute and tub and a 200' x 200' corral built out of concrete page wire. Summer after next years plan is to start building facilities like we have at the feedlot, Stampede Steel working system and steel sorting corrals. I've done some modifications to a friends facilites that allows us to sort 500 cow/calf pairs apart in about an hour with two guys. So gonna build a proper facility at the ranch that can handle 1200+ cows with minimal amount of people helping.
