At Home on the Range

Post by Clemson Prairie Ecology Fellow Annie Carew

Our first week on the ranch has been busy and varied. We spent Monday through Thursday setting groundwork for our research projects, which align with what the ranchers need to better manage their land. We’ve begun mapping the spread of invasive plants on the ranch, starting right behind our house. On a hillside a thirty-minute drive into the ranch from our house, we’ve marked out thirty-by-thirty meter plots on which we will be thinning the growth of Ponderosa pines. Our projects will require a lot of hard work and time, but the good news is that we’ll never be bored.

On Friday, we woke up early and drove up to the Segars’s house to saddle up their horses. We managed to capture one of them, but the others ran out of the corral and back into the paddock. When the ranch managers, Terry and LaVonne, arrived, they rounded up the miscreants on horseback. All the horses were sweating by the time they came back into the corral. We remember to close the gate to the corral this time. We caught, tacked, and saddled the horses, then rode out across the ranch to where a herd of calves was grazing. We herded the calves, with the help of Amos the cattle dog, back to Terry and LaVonne’s house. The calves were separated based on whether they would be kept or sold. The keepers were herded through an enormous hydraulic squeeze chute, which holds them in place with only their heads sticking out. We tattooed both ears with the calves’ identifying numbers, then separated them again by sex. Getting the calves through the single-file chute into the squeezer was a herculean task unto itself; the poor things were terrified and constantly turning around, or backing up, or generally making things much more difficult than necessary. Terry and LaVonne had no patience for their nonsense. Terry waded into the chute to manhandle the calves into compliance. He wasn’t kicked once, but he was pooped on. I batted at the calves with a stick, trying to poke or slap them into submission, with moderate success. It took us until almost six to get all the calves tattooed and turned out to graze, and after that we had to ride back to the Segars’s and take care of our horses. The horses had been standing in the hot sun all afternoon while we tattooed, and they were eager to get home and munch on some grass. I brushed down my horse, Blackjack, and gave him a treat for his troubles. I haven’t spent much time around horses myself, so I have no idea if he liked me or not. He didn’t throw me, though.

I was totally in awe of Terry and LaVonne today. They are both very at home on horseback, and completely unafraid of their charges. Terry takes no nonsense at all from his calves; I saw him wrench calves around by their heads or tails, heedless of the sharp flying hooves and the possibility of being smooshed against the wall of the chute. In addition to wrangling cattle and being a great horsewoman, LaVonne made all of us lunch, and she is an excellent cook. There are not enough words to express how much respect for both of them after this day. Their dog, Amos, was amazing to watch in action. I’ve never seen a working dog actually do his work. Amos was kicked multiple times, but he always dove right back in to nip at the calves and make sure they went were LaVonne wanted them to go. When the calves refused to separate, turn, or walk, Amos was there to help. I saw him run flat-out across the prairie, belly low to the ground, multiple times to control one of the calves. He looked like a small cow himself.

I love the work that we’re doing, and it will be useful to Terry for managing the ranch. Friday was a surreal experience; on the list of things I never thought I’d do, rounding up cattle on horseback in Montana was somewhere near the top.