Weaning season is one of the busiest times of year on the ranch. It requires all hands on deck and makes for a few months of long days, and even longer nights.
Weaning is also one of the most rewarding times of the year. After a summer of the calves and their mothers grazing in the mountains, it’s time for them to come home. As ranchers, we have the gift of seeing how much they’ve changed and grown.
Weaning is the point in a calves' lifecycle when they are separated from their mom after 9 to 10 months. They are strong and healthy. For 4 to 6 weeks they will stay at our ranch in Oreana before they are delivered to their contracted buyers throughout the United States or selected for our beef program.
The cowboys on our team will work tirelessly from the beginning of October until mid December to gather all of our calves across vast landscapes and 100,000's of acres to bring them down to our home place.
It's so much work and keeps the team very busy. After all the calves are delivered to the buyers, and the weather has started to cool and snow blows through the air, we will trail the mother cows down the mountain to lower ground on our ranches. The cows will graze cover crop on ours and other local partners fields during the winter.
In late January, the cows and heifer (1st time mom) will start calving. Our team will check them daily to keep an eye on any cow that is having issues and might need assistance. Our goal is to not have to assist but there are situations where the cow is having struggles and can't birth her calf without our assistance.