This past week marks the end of my first month on the E Bar U and I couldn’t be more excited about the time I’ve spent here as well as what the next couple months will bring. Hay season is in full swing as we are consistently busy cutting, raking, bailing and hauling from our fields. This is my first experience haying for a large operation and the amount of hay needed to carry operations through the winter amazes me. In just one day we hauled nearly three hundred bales and that filled a single stack yard. Where I am from in Texas three hundred bales is more then enough to get through our colder months. One important thing I leaned about haying is that the alfalfa hay must be cut before the weevil gets to it. A weevil (Hypera postica) is a beetle type insect that originated from Europe, this insect grazes primarily on alfalfa fields and can be known to destroy an entire alfalfa crop. Cutting the alfalfa hay before the weevil gets to it will ensure a quality hay crop.
This week we took a set of two year old first calve cows to their summer pastures. Before we trailed to pasture we sorted the steer calf pairs from the heifer calf pairs in the pasture. Once we gathered the pasture and pushed them to a corner, we then held the bunch and begun turning steer pairs back. Having your steer pairs and heifer pairs in different pastures takes away some of the work when it’s time to ship in fall. Now, all that needs to happen when its time to shift is gather those pairs from their respected pastures and split off your big calves from your smaller ones and load them on the truck. Taking away the task or sorting heifers and steers in the corrals during shipping will lead to less stressed cattle due to that they will be worked one less step in the shipping process.
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