Jedidiah Hewlett joins Ladder Livestock for the summer

Hello! My name is Jedidiah Hewlett and I will be the intern at Ladder Livestock this summer! I started the week off busy as ever. On Monday, Pat took me around and showed me the meadows and also the conservation efforts of the ranch. They have installed permanent structures in the river to improve the fish habitat for their recreational guests. The riparian areas look really good! When we got back to the home ranch I started dragging the meadows to break up the cow pies and help them release the nutrients better. On Tuesday, I continued dragging meadows. On Wednesday, we went and branded about 60 calves on the desert. The steers and heifers get a different brand for easy identification. After we were done, Meghan took me around and showed me the sheep camps and lambing barns. They are quite impressive!!! On Thursday, we moved some furniture into the trailer where I am staying and then spent the afternoon dragging some more meadows. Even though it was a push to get it done, we finished up the meadows below Battle Mountain so that we can start irrigating them. On Friday, I learned how to wrangle the horses and then spent the day out on the desert gathering cattle. It was some really neat country, and some of the sagebrush was over my head! On Saturday, we rode out to the desert again to gather cattle. Unfortunately, I got separated from the other riders and didn’t get regrouped until about 10 o’clock. I learned a few things from this experience, namely that I should have paid better attention to the landmarks to guide me back to where I needed to be. It was a lesson that I would rather not have learned in that way, but now I know what to do if another similar situation were to arise. The summer sounds like it will be full of many more adventures, including the training of the three new mustangs that we adopted. I am excited!!!