Rangeland Intern Allison Harvey is busy at work in Gillette. She had a bit of trouble with fence this week, this is what she had to say about it:
“On Tuesday it seemed that every animal that could get through a fence did get through a fence. The heifers, steers, bulls, and rams all managed to get through on the same day. After we did the routine ranch check, we attempted to roughly sort the steers and the heifers away from each other. When it cooled off a bit, we brought the sheep up to separate off the rams from the ewes and wethers. We also separated off twenty wethers for processing. Luckily, the pen the bulls got into was empty.
On Wednesday, I performed the routine ranch check. I fixed the gate that the rams had broken through and checked on the sheep. I repaired the temporary fence near the heifer waterer where they knocked it down. I also repaired the temporary fence where the steers had knocked it down.”
This was a great learning experience for Allison as these are definitely the day-to-day happenings on a working operation!
She was also given a great opportunity to teach this week!
“We also had a group of 4-Hers out for a day camp. We started the day off by collecting sticks and stones for an art project and making homemade lemonade. Before lunch, we necropsied a lamb that had been recently wounded by coyotes and explained the challenges of protecting the livestock while teaching about anatomy. After lunch, we followed up on how we protect the livestock by introducing the guard dog puppies. While they worked on their craft, I showed them my snake and talked about snakes. We finished off the day with homemade ice cream and showing them dried animal bones. While some of the kids came from ranch backgrounds, most of them did not. It was fun to answer questions about ranching and to see their fascination with it. One question I got a lot was why we keep the livestock out on the range if they can get eaten by wild animals? I explained that because this area doesn’t get a lot of rain, and because the country is so rough, it’s hard to harvest enough forage to keep the animals in a barn.”
Keep up the great work Allison!
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