By Hallie Jette
It’s been a busy couple of weeks after attending the Stock Growers 150th Summer Convention in Cheyenne where I had a lot of fun meeting members and sitting in on meetings. On Monday, I learned how to use a tire machine because the 4-wheeler needed new tires, so we mounted the new ones on the rims before mounting them on the vehicle. It was pretty rainy on Monday, so we stayed inside and accomplished tasks such as changing tires.
On Tuesday, we gathered and branded the new bulls and the last group of calves that needed to be done. We then moved that group of cows and calves to the place on Wolf Creek at the E-U Ranch. Thursday through Saturday I sprayed Whitetop, which is an invasive weed. As we drove around the E-U earlier in the week, David pointed out most of the patches that we could see from the road so I had a general idea of where to spray. I found a lot more than we initially thought there was. Some of the patches I found hadn’t bloomed out yet, so I was happy to spray that before they could bloom and potentially seed out. I am still not done spraying so I will hopefully get that finished up at the end of the week.
Due to these cool temperatures, the Whitetop has stayed in bloom for longer than it did last year, and we do not want that for the pastures and cattle. It is very satisfying to drive past patches I sprayed on and see the plants wilting and starting to die. It was nice to spray for a few days and to find a new weed I love to hate. It changed from leafy spurge after learning about the control success David has had with the flea beetles. Overall it has been a productive week of learning and removing invasive species!
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