This week was we were in the saddle almost every day. I actually got a little tired of riding. On Tuesday we weaned the calves at home and turned the calves out. We were going to let them work their way back to the pasture we had taken them out of, but they were hungry and camped a little too long on the clover. We lost one calf because she bloated, despite our efforts to remedy it. It is important that calves get only hay or grass when they are really hungry instead of legumes, like clover. Otherwise, they eat too much and their stomach can’t process it fast enough, so they bloat.
We weaned the calves down at the lease pasture this week. We got them all into a big corral that we built out of panels and sorted the cows off. Then we hauled all the calves to the home place and vaccinated them. The calves were sometimes hard to work because the alley is made of panels and they can see out. I think that they would have been easier to move through if the crowing alley had something on it so the calves wouldn’t get so scared.
This week we did a little experimenting with a pivot-corner irrigation method. Mr. Perry 
had an old single-gun sprinkler that we got out and tried to use on the meadow where the pivot didn’t reach. After we repaired the pipe going to the sprinkler, it worked really well! It shoots pretty far and does a good job of spreading the water. I had to replace a pulley on the swather this week because the bearings had worn out. After that was done, I cut down one of the alfalfa meadows over two days. I calculated that I was cutting 6.5 acres per hour with the 14ft rotary swather.
As my internship comes to an end, I am grateful for all the things I’ve learned and the people that I have been privileged to meet. I especially enjoyed the opportunity to live and work in a part of Wyoming that I had not seen previously. I will certainly benefit in the future from the many lessons that I have learned during this summer.
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