By Wendy Pratt We spent the last five days in the mountains moving the herd. It was a route we hadn’t taken before and I had worried about it for weeks. I should have saved the stress because it all turned out fine. The cows were very obedient and went exactly where we guided them. […]
Posts from our Bloggers
More Like Her
By Mark and Wendy Pratt It’s hot. We’re sleeping in the basement where it’s cool and quiet. No dogs barking or kingbirds squawking at 4:30 am. By fall we’ll move back upstairs, but for now it’s a mini-getaway for us. This morning we watched a colorful tanager feed on the berries of the chokecherry out our living […]
Long Live Cowboys
By Cheyenne Glade Wilson Does the world need more cowboys? HECK YES!!! This past weekend my husband and I put on two days of ranch rodeo action in Chadron, Nebraska. I can tell you that the spirit of the cowboy is alive and well. We had over 60 cowboys and cowgirls competing for the weekend […]
June Scrapbook
Blog post by Wendy Pratt Photo by Anita Pratt June is slipping away. June always does that. We had a major move over the last mountain with the cattle. The route is convoluted. It includes a blind corner and a steep grade. It’s a trick to execute with a big herd, so we determined to […]
Penalties in the Branding Pen
As the branding season is among us, the weekends are filled with baby calves, great company, and good fun. When asked what I will be doing on “Saturday” from the middle of March to the first of June, my reply is something to the effect of, “Well I’m not sure- are we branding calves?” As […]
On Our Way To Grass
By Wendy Pratt Photos by Anita Pratt The spring cattle drive is done for another season. A “drive” is the traditional name for moving cows long distances. We call it “the trail,” as in “going up the trail.” There is a subtle but important difference of semantics between trailing cows and driving cows. We still […]
When May Happens
By Wendy R. Pratt We’re staging the cows to leave for the hills, putting groups back together since calving and branding, and moving them to green grass on pastures around the home ranch. We’ll open the gates and start walking towards our mountain range next week. Staging is not to be confused with “shaping them […]
The Cover
by Cheyenne Glade Wilson Spring is upon us and soon summer will be in full swing. I love the seasons we are blessed with as ranchers. It never ceases to amaze me how each year has its similarities, but when examining a bit closer there are so many unique things to discover. This reminds me […]
