Roaring of motors in August is a common sound in the hay fields of the Green River Valley. Tractors moving in the hay fields around the hay stack are like ants busy at work around their ant hill. Green grass turning different shades of green as the hay is cut, baled and stacked is aContinue reading “Haying in the Green River Valley”
Tag Archives: Jonita Sommers
Trailing to the Mountains
The sun starts to lighten the skyline above the Wind River Mountains while the song birds can be heard singing and the warm and cool air currents can be felt as the cowboys ride across the sagebrush, BLM allotment to gather the cattle and start them marching north to summer pasture. This is the beginningContinue reading “Trailing to the Mountains”
The Pleasures of Calving
The little calves always make calving fun and seem worthwhile no matter how tired you are or how disastrous the situation seems. When four heifers aborted in a week almost two months before calving time, it appeared to be a disaster. When the second calf was aborted, Vern came out and did an autopsy. VernContinue reading “The Pleasures of Calving”
Bulls…and more bulls
Males, particularly males of the bovine species, can be very irritating and time consuming. Bulls seem to be uncontrollable starting in late March and ending in November. You never know where or when they have gone gallivanting off. You think they are in your pasture, especially made for bulls, but when you look there isContinue reading “Bulls…and more bulls”
Snow Day
Remember snow days when you were a kid? It was so much fun! No school; just drinking cocoa and wearing 14 layers of clothes to go run around in the yard. Well, the RealRanchers of the Green River Valley (and most others I’ve ever been around) do not believe in snow days. THIS is aContinue reading “Snow Day”
Spring Pasture
Editors Note: It’s already July and after a slow, cold, wet start, we’re finally in the swing of summer in Wyoming. We neglected to put this post up in a more timely manner, but couldn’t let it wait until next year to share Jonita’s wonderful account of spring pasture and some history of grazing! Continue reading “Spring Pasture”
Spring Cleaning, Part II
Last week we published a love story. Rancher meets manure; rancher gathers manure; rancher spreads manure. It gets me all choked up inside! Ok, so maybe it’s not quite a love story. Nonetheless, the photos I found online to illustrate the manure saga, didn’t quite do justice to this part of ranch life. So lastContinue reading “Spring Cleaning, Part II”
Spring Cleaning
It’s a Crappy Job, But Someone’s Gotta Do It! Cleaning the corrals and dragging the meadows are spring cleaning chores for ranchers. Scattering manure for fertilizer can also be part of spring cleaning. As soon as the frost is out of the top of the ground a rancher’s spring cleaning starts. This is usually theContinue reading “Spring Cleaning”
Bon Appetit!
Cattle standing in a bunch on the feedground waiting for the rancher to feed them is a familiar scene throughout the Green River Valley. A few ranchers still use a team and sleigh to feed their cattle, but most ranchers use a tractor with a heated cab hooked on a bale feeder that is runContinue reading “Bon Appetit!”
Rancher Talk
Have your heifers started? Did you have to pull very many? When do the cows start? All these questions are beginning to circulate between ranching neighbors at this time of year. Have you heard any of this lingo and wonder, what in the world are they talking about? This is a very important at thisContinue reading “Rancher Talk”
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