Goodbye Ladies

This year our heard consisted of about 200 hundred mother cows.  They birthed through the winter, and as always provided all kinds of fun and adventure for our family.  I even saw my first live birth!  I think it was also the first birth for Jake, Justin, and Megan.  In early April Travis found a buyer who was interested in purchasing the entire heard.  On April 16th the cowboys gathered and rounded up the cattle to brand and vaccinate and then to be shipped to their new home in Hagerman.  It is one of our favorite days of the year.  Jake and Emma skipped school to take part in the day, I put together the cowboy lunch.  True cowboy kids hang out in the back of the pick up and watch the excitment until they are old enough to participate.  Justin and Megan must not yet be true cowboy kids, because they aren't very good at staying in the back of the truck.  They stayed home with a babysitter--maybe next year kiddos.

Here are the semis arriving to load up our girls.

The branding process. 

About a third of the mommas.

Our handsome and fearless leader.

Jake and his favorite cowboy (next to his dad of course)

At the end of the day the mother cows load up on one truck and their babies on another.  Once they arrive at their destination the babies cry and the mothers search until each one finds the other.  It is an amazing process.  We felt a lot of mixed emotions as we watched the cows load up and drive away.  We love taking care of them, but the opportunity to sell them was too good to pass by and afterall we are in the cattle business, I guess they aren't pets.

All the cattle couldn't ship in one day, so once the first two loads had left Jake to one last opportunity to drive "his" feed truck while our employees threw off the hay.  He has figured out how to reach the gas and nearly sent one of our guys on the ride of his life!