thought maybe some of y'all might like to take a look at some of my country

[Hippie Rancher]

kids took this the other day, might want to leave sound off, music needs some work, LOL

 

[Silver]

Thanks for sharing that. I have to say that is about as different from this place as one could get. And because it's so different from what I know I have to ask….. what are those cattle eating? I'm not being flippant, I seriously don't see anything. But the cattle look like are are doing okay so there is obviously feed there, just I. A different form than here. Is it the leaves of the shrubbery?

 

[Hippie Rancher]

they are on a mixture of dry natives and lehman's love grass. because we get so little moisture, the dry feed retains a bit more nutrition than in other places. when we have wet fall/winters the feed gets particularly poor. they browse a fair amount on mesquite and waitaminute brush as well while it is green. they will lick up some of the mesquite leaves as they drop and it will green up again starting in April. a lot of people hate lehmans but when the stock know it they can get fat just licking off the seedheads, LOL. it will also stay or green up at temps above 60 degrees which we will hit for a number of periods in the daytime all winter. the best thing I have seen in the last decade was putting them on wind and rain mineral. I swear they could eat cardboard and still do ok.

virtually all the cows were born and raised here, so they are adapted. I think we have bought 3 head of cows in the last 10 years, and those belong to my sister the shopaholic that went with me to a couple bull sales.

 

[Silver]

Interesting. I'm assuming there isn't a lot of standing water in that country for them to drink, are you on wells?

 

[Hippie Rancher]

Interesting. I'm assuming there isn't a lot of standing water in that country for them to drink, are you on wells?

we've got about 9 dirt ponds of which 2 can hold year round about 50% of years. one or two of the others are very reliable for 6 to 9 months, the rest not so much. have a pretty reliable deep well and several steel storage tanks. used to rely on two shallow wells when the ponds went dry but we developed the well back in the early 90s. it was one of very few off-site wells for a titan missile silo. we put in 6 miles of pipe at that time. the ranch was destocked in the 50s and in the late 70s due to no water.

 

[puzzled in oregon]

How many acres roughly does it take to support a cow/calf pair?

 

[Hippie Rancher]

How many acres roughly does it take to support a cow/calf pair?

NRCS and the like say to start at 80/AU

 

[puzzled in oregon]

Do the cattle stay in smaller sized groups or do they just disperse out over a large area?

 

[Travlr]

NRCS and the like say to start at 80/AU

What does that mean in numbers pairs/acres?

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

What does that mean in numbers pairs/acres?

80 acres per animal unit, or " you need a bunch of land"

 

[Dave]

If that is your private ranch roads they look a whole lot better than the ranch roads around here. And it is flat too. Our county road looks about like that except it is wider. Wide enough for 2 cars to pass each other although we slow way down to squeeze by each other.

 

[CowboyRam]

When dad worked for Warren Livestock dad said they had better roads than the county.

 

[Hippie Rancher]

Do the cattle stay in smaller sized groups or do they just disperse out over a large area?

well....that is kind of complicated. at the moment. most of our internal fence gates are open. we are down to 4 waters that would take care of 7 of 11 pasture and have been struggling for years to get all the cross fencing done and animals where they can be handled again. long, boring, whining story of bad family dynamics, health issues, human migration and the usual ranch crises that happen. hope to be back on track in another year with a grazing plan and actual cattle movements from pasture to pasture. so the answer is kind of "both" high concentrations at waters and dispersed out for grazing. sort of like the bad old days before any kind of rotations were being done.

 

[Hippie Rancher]

If that is your private ranch roads they look a whole lot better than the ranch roads around here. And it is flat too. Our county road looks about like that except it is wider. Wide enough for 2 cars to pass each other although we slow way down to squeeze by each other.

the first part before that left turn where the camera kind of spins around is about 3 miles of a big utility right-of-way. they really worked it over a couple years ago. it was REALLY nice and like a dang highway for us, but it was a nightmare because there is no frontage road on the interstate through here and it is like a 100 mile detour when there is any kind of wreck. google tells the morons they can take the road shown in the video. google is wrong. remember that. when that road was really smooth, the idiots would get 5 miles all the way to the house and have to go back and still sit in traffic. the second 2 miles is a little rougher for passenger vehicles. semis have trouble too. but morons believe their phones over the signs I have posted telling them they can't go that way and that they risk damage to their vehicles.

towards the beginning where you see my son go around the front of the truck, I am pretty sure he is locking wheel hubs because there is a bad sandy patch right ahead of there. it has helped stop the moron traffic better than any sign I have posted.

 

[puzzled in oregon]

well....that is kind of complicated. at the moment. most of our internal fence gates are open. we are down to 4 waters that would take care of 7 of 11 pasture and have been struggling for years to get all the cross fencing done and animals where they can be handled again. long, boring, whining story of bad family dynamics, health issues, human migration and the usual ranch crises that happen. hope to be back on track in another year with a grazing plan and actual cattle movements from pasture to pasture. so the answer is kind of "both" high concentrations at waters and dispersed out for grazing. sort of like the bad old days before any kind of rotations were being done.

Sounds a bit like the situation I share with relatives. But you will conquer the obstacles, I am about ready to take flight.

 

[gcreekrch]

Pretty country.

 

[farmerjan]

WOW... so different from here in Va... Except for the interstate, there isn't a road anywhere that I know of longer than maybe a mile, that is flat or straight...
80 acres for a cow.... He// we would have 50 cows on 80 acres with grass to spare in years of average to good rain...
It would be great to see just to get a feel for the vastness of the area.

Thank you for sharing...