Ranchers

The Bulls have It

Ranchers

All in a Day’s Work

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

            The Bulls have it.

            We worked our bull battery Friday. Each of those red hided investments was subjected to the chute to be probed, pulsed, collected, and scraped. Evidence suggests not one of them appreciated it, but it went forth with a degree of uniformity and decorum.

            As in all circumstances where bulls are concentrated, there is an ongoing balance of chaos and structure. Chaos in the fact that rank is a condition of existence and it is constantly challenged and debated. Structure in the fact that when the group accepts a hierarchy it is revealed as if each is a magnet pushed and pulled until a universal balance is achieved. Conditional tranquility then results until any disruption occurs and the entire process can descend back into dramatic and spectacular conflict.

            As a kid, my grandfather always warned me to watch the bulls. It was normally never a real issue until tighter quarters were forced and then those horned Hereford bulls would fight. We were told repeatedly it wasn’t necessarily the winner that had to be watched. It was the defeated challenger that was most dangerous when he broke and ran.

            “He’ll run right over you or anything else that is in his way.”

            The power can be spectacular. Several years ago, we penned a bull “on the hook” in our Monterrey corral only to see him leave with fence draped across his chest. He hit the fence so hard it snapped like a crystalline figurine.

            It was indeed impressive.

            All in a Day’s Work

            So, it was in starts and stops as our day with the bulls proceeded.

We presorted and divided the entire group into four subgroups. That was done to get age groups lumped together and to separate dominant herd bulls into smaller drafts to avoid conflicts and wasted time. One bull was separated completely and then sorted off into a mix of cull cows after we trich tested him. He has increasingly become more dangerous and difficult to work and his status is now confirmed. He will leave the headquarter corral only in a truck bound for a terminal harvest appointment.

Bringing him into the alley and up to the runup to the chute was, as expected, eventful. We did it horseback as quietly as possible. When we got him in our Bud Box, he challenged the nearest horse only to find himself in a position we could get the gate shut. It was because of him we recently put another rail atop the runup to the chute. He tried to jump once before he turned and ran the runup and radius into the chute where BJ’s brother-in-law caught him.

“Bang!” was the sound of the jarring stop.

No theatrics and nobody or animal was hurt in the process, but that is the way it should happen. BJ stayed mounted for two more snorty bulls before he also tied his horse and went back to the ground to work the remaining bulls to the chute. For some time, our bulls have generally been gentle, that is what we demand, and that is the way it should be. Stewardship spans many things and that includes the management of each component of the cowherd.

It continued at the chute and the work table where Drrs. Wenzel (Senior and Junior) went through their fertility and health check routine. Their microscope was on the table and each semen sample was analyzed for viability. Seven percent of the bull battery was marked for sale in failure and or marginal results of that testing (even the little cowboys who had escaped school to be part of this greater and far more practical learning experience got to view the samples under the microscope and were taught what motility and morphology was). Another, similar number of bulls were tagged similarly for other subjective reasons.

By early afternoon, we were done. Order was again established in the bull pen where the occupants will now remain until the sexually transmitted lab test results are received and analyzed.

It was then time to go out and address the ongoing ranch demands. Water had to be checked, a calf with acute laryngitis had to be treated, and another calf with multiple abscesses had to be lanced and treated. The day was far from over before evening chores. It was just another ranch day.

It was all in a day’s work.

Ranchers

Of course, J.R. Williams was the best of all time depicting the life of a rancher in caricature form. Williams wasn’t born to the craft, but he learned it implicitly from his investment and its life style demands during his most cognizant years. He was supremely attuned to the nuances. His ability to recreate it all on a piece of paper was simply unparalleled. In that, he was a genius.

Most of the modern world has little or no idea what we actually do. At best, it is riding the range and punching those dogies, but that resembles nothing of truth and it never has.

 A little snippet of that was seen the day before we worked the bulls. We had been to another unavoidable meeting, and, following that, the three ranchers in the group wound up transferring a truck load of protein supplement tubs. The youngest was 60 and the oldest one wasn’t, but each knew what it took to move those 200 pound tubs at any age.

When it was all over, we shook hands and told each other how much we enjoyed being together. Indeed, it was just another day, but the respect we have for each other and what we do is breathtakingly special.

We thank our Lord for that honor, and … these few lasting friends.

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico. “The older I get the less I have in common with most people. Most of my nearby world probably agrees with that.”