This week, I was able to embark on one of Aaron and Faith's tasks. As the two were out of town, Sam and I took over their essential job of feeding the cattle. I also saw a unique insight into how the two work in wet and muddy conditions. There are two words that come to mind, and that is "messy business."

I showed up expecting a typical day on the ranch, but I did not think I was about to be a part of something comparable to Mike Rowe's show Dirty Jobs. The state of Sam's truck was the first sign to me that this would be a mess. He had been working the past few days with Aaron, and there was an obvious sign that he had been in the mud, considering the inside of his truck looked like a hog in the mud. There is no getting around this, though, and that's why work trucks are work trucks.

Our mission was simple: go to the yearling cattle and feed them several round hay bales. We arrived on the scene, and Sam hopped into our skid steer (that's a small front-end loader for those who don't know), and he proceeded to pull hay from the bunks. My job would be to open the gates for him to the pasture and help him get in while keeping the cattle from escaping. After Sam was inside, the cattle followed him, seeing their tasty treat at hand. This worked to our advantage as we could leave the gate open with the distracted cattle and work as needed.

Once inside the gate, I was introduced to the muddy mess that awaited us. Now, the mud was caused by two things. One was the snow melt from the storm we had a few days before. Although the cattle spread out in a large grassy pasture, the second reason for the mud is from them gathering by the gate. They tend to trample down the grass in that area, leaving it quite bare. Fortunately, Sam and I only had so far to go to a grassy area to roll out the hay for the cattle.

Rolling out hay is a chore within itself. The first part of the job is to take the twine off the bale. This is harder than you may think; as my hungry friends like to gather around close in anticipation, maybe a little too close for comfort. However, once the twine is gathered, the job of rolling out the hay is easy. Sam will first give the hay a little nudge to let the cattle know that the bale will start rolling. Once the cattle are clear, Sam will use the skid steer to roll out the bale.

To feed the cattle, we will put out six bales of hay to keep the herd healthy and happy. We also ended up becoming quite muddy and smelly from walking around in the messy parts of the pasture. However, the important part is that the cattle are happy and enjoying a great grazing of hay!

Cow Of The Month

Mooonica

Personality:

• Loves Adventure
• Always Looking For A Good Time

Hobbies:

• Hiking
• Grazing
• Socializing With Friends

Picture Of The Month