Follow the Herd

This year at the Mountain Sky Ranch a few of us assisted with round-up. Actually, real cowboys don't use the term "round-up" anymore; they call it gathering. Four of us, including a wrangler, rode slowly into a pasture to locate unbranded calves and their moms in a herd of hundreds of cattle. The goal was to move each pair into a separate pasture for vaccinations and branding--without startling the herd. If the cattle are riled up, the entire herd runs to the far end of the pasture. When you ride slowly through the herd, the cattle don't mind you much.

Each cow and calf has a tag in its ear with a number, and the mom's number is the same as her calf's number. We had a list of five numbers to look for. For example, we had to find pair 331. We spotted calf 331 and then searched for its mom. The moms usually aren't too far away from their calves, but they're not always easy to find.

When the four of us sort of circled calf 331 on our horses, the other cattle moved away but the mom bawled for its calf. We allowed the calf to run to its mom, and then we rode in a wide circle around the pair to guide them into the other pasture. The moms always looked for a hole in our circle to escape through and sometimes made mad dashes for freedom. A bit of a scramble would ensue as we tried to cut them off. Other cows followed the action, and we clucked them away. When we had a mom and calf near the gate, the wrangler rode over to open the gate and the mom resigned to her fate. At that point, the cow willingly walked through with her calf in tow.

We identified, separated, and gathered five pairs; one pair at a time. About midway through, a soft rain fell but we paid no mind. It took us a little under two hours, but it seemed like 10 minutes.