Wesley Howe

A story ran in the news today of a dog badly mauled by a mountain lion while defending its owners, triggering some thought from me.

No greater honorable deed is recognized among humans than that accorded someone who gave their life while protecting others. While this happens in war, and occasionally elsewhere, it is standard operating procedure for a dog.

I have a sort of chow/lab crossbreed black dog we call “Shadow” (he was small, black, and always right behind you). He is 10 now, and still in good shape, if a little slower. He should be a boy scout, obedient, friendly, kind…

About three years ago, I took him with me when I went to feed the cattle. I ride around the ranch in a two-passenger vehicle that is sort of like a gas-powered golf cart, but with ATV tires and engine. Shadow sits up right beside you when travelling, as comfortable and attentive as any person. When I got down to the feeding spot, I parked the vehicle, got out the buckets and told him to stay.

We had an agressive Longhorn-cross cow we named Alice that always wanted her food Right Now. I generally always had to shoo at her to make her step back far enough for me to pour the feed into the trough. That day was not different, I took off my hat and flapped it at her, and poured the feed.

As I turned to go to the next trough, I saw Shadow sailing in a low arc through the air, landing some 15 feet away. Alice had tossed him with her horns. I was sure the dog was dead (and mortified with the idea of ’splaining that to Kay). I got over there, and he was lying still, but alive.

I gingerly checked him for broken bones and gaping wounds, but he was only shook up, and maybe bruised a little. He had not been gored, just picked up and tossed like a stuffed toy.

Shadow had seen me fussing with this cow, and thought I was being attacked by a large, dangerous animal. He had jumped out of the buggy, ran under the fence and proceeded to attack the cow he thought was trying to kill me. This cow weighted about 1,000 pounds, Shadow about 35. It would be hard to think of any greater mismatch, but Shadow did not think of his security, only of mine.

Had he been gored, or landed differently, he could have died. But regardless of the odds, he did the only thing that he saw the situation demanded, save me (luckily I was in no real danger from the cow).

So remember, to a dog you are important enough to die for. The next time he barks at something and annoys you, remember he is protecting you from a perceived threat. All in a day’s work for a dog.

Among my cattle are some Texas Longhorns. While not a grand commercial success compared to other breeds, they are gentle and curious (do not mistake my description of gentle as an invitation for inexperienced people to wander about in a pen full of them, they have huge horns and can hurt you by accident).

I was in a pasture among my herd working on some brush clearing, a nearly continuous need here. I had a pile of branches I had pushed over some long while before that I was moving over to combine with some newer I had just removed. In this brush pile a mother rabbit had parked one of her babies, who was now out in the open by himself, and knew not what to do.

 One heifer, whom I call Blanco (she is white, another imaginative name) saw this small bunny and came over to sniff at it to figure out what it was. Cattle are exclusively vegetarians, so she wasn’t looking for a meal. The poor bunny was frozen in place, and finally as the young cow got close she hopped a few feet away.

Undetered, Blanco moved closer to sniff… the bunny hopped. The cycle repeated down the hill until the bunny got close enough to the edge of the  pasture that it saw where some more brush was, and it scurried into the brush. While the young rabbit was undoubtedly terribly frightened at being chased by a huge animal many times its size, the look of puzzlement on the cow as this thing hopped away again and again was amusing.

I run a ranch here, and I like my animals and pets. Observing animal behavior is a part of understanding them, and some of the things I have observed are worth talking about.

Today brought an event of interest, revealing how animals project their own standards on other animals. I have a small dachshund-cross dog, Ludwig (another abandoned animal rescue) that I am just getting house broken. Because Ludwig likes to run off, and there are dangers to a small dog as him on the loose, I walk him on a leash to do his “business”.

This afternoon, the cattle were all up behind the house at the pens when we walked. Included in the herd is a lone female donkey named (imaginatively) Jenny. Ludwig and Jenny have been curious about each other, but wary of getting too close. This afternoon, they were within a foot of each other, across the fence. Jenny reached out and ate some grass from a tuft next to a fence pole. Ludwig saw this, and wanted to eat some of whatever Jenny was having. However, he would not get any closer than about a foot away, and he kept snatching at a few sprigs of grass and pulling back.

I took him for a walk later on this evening, and he dragged me over to the very same spot he was at previously, and I watched him sniff and explore through the fence the spot that Jenny was eating from. Of course, he found nothing but more grass there, but it is obvious that he thought that the donkey would have tastes parallel to his own, and thus whatever it was eating would be something he, too, would like.

Probably Ludwig still believes that, and just regards not finding anything as being caused by Jenny consuming all that was available, not because she was eating ordinary grass. Who would eat grass in preference to meat and bugs?

Later, I will write my story about the Longhorn cow and the baby rabbit.

There is a lot of bad news floating around out there, and a lot of anguish over what to do about it. I am going to skip commenting about any of that stuff… leave it to the political blogs.

For several days here I have been humming “Happy Days Are Here Again”, even though I am not a Democrat. Has nothing to do with politics, and everything to do with conditions here at Ranch Como.

For pretty much the first time since August, we are “underwater”… no, not a mortgage problem, real water. If fell from the sky. It’s been so long since that happened I had to think about what they called that: Rain!

And darned if there aren’t patches of green out in the midst of the sea of brown that I used to call pastures. While there has not been anywhere close to enough rain to start raising the levels of our stock tanks (Texas’ term for small cattle ponds), it has moistened the ground enough to start the native cool-season grasses (varieties of ryegrass) growing.

Our cattle seem well pleased at the development also. Their diet for the last 6+ months has been hay, with some cattle cubes to supplement. Hay is nutritious (for cattle), but they don’t like it as well, and it is not as nutritious as fresh, green grass. What’s there isn’t tall, but for two days they spent most of the day ignoring the hay and finding the little patches of green and eating what they could of it.

We are not finished with winter here yet, but things have improved dramatically, and it has filled me with hope for a year with at least close to normal rainfall. Another extremely dry year like last year would seriously damage the land. Last years drought killed some Oaks, and even killed some of the Cedar (reall Juniper) trees on the place… they just turned brown and died from lack of water. There are still plenty of trees left, but I think a second extreme dry would kill a lot of trees, as well as grasses dying instead of just being dormant.

So I have said my thanks for this positive turn of event to the one responsible. But I just feel so much better seeing it happening now. This is not especially early for this part of the country (we are as far South as parts of Florida here), but after having such a dry Fall, dry enough that even the weeds stopped growing, it is inspiring.

In the name of global warming, the emissions from cattle are being targeted by the EPA as part of the problem. Good sense is not being used, because before we raised cattle in the U.S., huge sections of the country were heavily populated with Bison, an animal so closely related to Cattle that they can interbreed, and after that, wild Cattle roamed the Southwestern U.S., until they were rounded up and then eventually fenced in. So animal based emissions are not the root of the problem, but they are targeted to be part of the solution.

This is the typical Bull droppings that governmental officials generate. In the rush to “do something” (and we will argue elsewhere about whether anthropogenic warming is a fairy tale or not) the easy targets are being attacked first. Cattle raisers are generally small family-operated businesses up to the point where the animals are slaughtered. The EPA has proposed a fee of over $80.00 per head per year for beef cattle. Folks, I have had to sell old cows before, and have received as little as $80.00 for one (but usually a couple hundred dollars). Calves sometimes sell for as little as $200.00.

I’m sure the EPA is inspired by all the vegans (like the idiots at PETA) that think we would all be better off if people ate less meat and we “planted more healthful crops”. Most ranchland is poor farming land. Cattle are wonderfully efficient at converting grass grown on marginal croplands into food. Nonetheless, they are tackling the wrong part of the problem because it is easy. Biological processes release methane. The earth produces it, it escapes from the ground in such pristine places as the arctic tundra.

But cattle raisers do not have the deep pockets to produce the prolonged battle that the real carbon emitters do. So the first rules are not aimed at coal companies or oil companies, but at cattle. Such wonderfully brave bureaucrats. However, since it takes most of two years to produce a good head of beef, this fee could raise the price of beef on the hoof 50%.

This fixes nothing, it’s a tax. More money to give away to banks and car companies, stolen from the people that work to produce the wealth we all share. This will cause inflation all on its own, because America will not quickly change their diet, and huge increases in food prices are bad for families and are just bad politics. Mr. Obama, do you want to be our first one-term black President? For instructions on how, just continue to allow this sort of misguided policy to be implemented.

It has been a while since we had any new calves hit the ground here at Rancho Como. While new calves become what we sell, they are more delightful than just a future ka-ching in the cash register of life. It is great to see them trying to explore the world, to see their mothers dote on them, grooming them and easing their fears, and to watch them grow and develop.

This calf is a cutie, too. Her mother is a salt-and-pepper colored Longhorn breed cow (horned, of course) and the father is our all black Brangus bull, Mr. Duke. The new gal is polled (naturally hornless), because the father is polled, and horns on cattle are a recessive trait, despite what intuition would tell you. She is white, with a few black spots, and black “trim”… meaning around the edge of her eyes, her nose, hoofs, teats and the inside of her ears are all black. Like most of the Longhorn/Brangus crosses we have, the head has the “Angus” look to it, generally a shorter snout and wider head, with peak between the ears where the base of the horns would start on a horned animal.

I found the gal this morning, but I am pretty sure she had to have been born the day before (Thursday), perhaps in the afternoon or evening. Her mother is treating her well, and she seems healthy enough. This is a first calf for her mother (who was also born here) and sometimes the first calves come a little too soon, and premature calves do not fare well. They often seem to lack the will to survive, which frustrates their mothers, who are trying to get them to nurse and relieve their pressure. It is sad because they just get weak and die, sometimes the mother abandons them, sometimes not. I tried hand feeding one once, but after a few weeks it eventually died, it never thrived and I decided that allowing nature to take its course was the best policy with the preemies. We had two last year, but none yet this year.

I have several more mothers that should be calving soon, but it has been a couple of months since we had a new calf. This time of year can be a bad time for them, because the evenings can get pretty cold. we haven’t had our first freeze yet this year, but it shouldn’t be long. The cattle find somewhere to lay sheltered from the wind, with a full belly of grass, which generates heat as it is digested. The youngest of the calves have more trouble, because they start out totally dependent on their mother’s milk, and do not really start digesting grass well for a couple of weeks, although they begin grazing at a few days of age. It takes time for the right bacteria to develop in their rumen and for their digestive system to get into gear. While they will continue to nurse as long as they are with their mother, after four months grass is their predominant source of nutrition, although we usually don’t wean them until they are about eight months, we have had calves left orphaned at a few months that survived.

I don’t really like pessimism, but when you combine the punishing drops in stock and real estate values with the fact that we have had under two inches of rain all Summer, it’s hard not to feel sorry for yourself. Cattle prices are off, which affects me as well as many of my neighbors. But I am not feeling the pinch as much as some in our community are.

Last week, Alcoa announced they were closing their Aluminum smelter in Rockdale, TX. This was a bombshell for many here, because that brings to around 800 the number of jobs lost (there are less than 6,000 residents in town), but also Alcoa has been operating here for about 56 years, longer than many in the community have lived. Some people feel that their anchor rope was cut, and they are left adrift in a bad tide. Just last year the community supported the School District floating a bond issue to replace some old schools but also to expand the capacity of the schools, providing seats and classrooms that will likely not be needed. While the total economy is not wrecked, because the existing and new power plant and strip coal mine will continue under Luminant, the new jobs at the new power plant will probably not take up all of the slack for the ones lost at the Smelter. It seems likely that many will have to move elsewhere to find work, there are no other large industries close by.

So the holidays may not be so happy here. While I continue to have faith that we will get rain, and that next year will be better, the warm season grasses will not grow any more this year, as the nights are becoming seasonally cooler. Good rains are needed to refill our cattle tanks (ponds) and to replenish the groundwater, but feeding hay until Spring is a certainty, since we have been having to feed hay for two months already.

No, nothing like a bribe or anything illegal or underhanded. Yesterday I hauled cattle to market, and today they sold and I got my check. Payday!

Of course, people have noticed that stocks and houses are down. Cattle is down also, but for different reasons. In the last three years, we have had significant drought conditions in Texas, then in Alabama/Georgia/Florida and now back in Texas. Our defense has generally been to sell the old cows and sell the calves young. While this shrinks the national herd size, it increases the number of cattle being marketed while it is ongoing. We all know what happens to prices when there is an increase in supply, and it is very evident in the lowered prices being paid. Additionally, very large premiums being paid for corn by ethanol makers touch the part of out business where yearlings are finished, sent to a feedyard and then to processing. Adding high costs in the middle at the feedyard depress the prices paid for yearlings. Again, the rancher is the one that gets shot when anything goes wrong.

In my situation, I am selling few calves now, other than some I have fed out for private slaughter. We have more calves than cows right now. I have seen better prices paid on heavier animals, where less feed will be required to finish them, and that is the level where I am taking my production now.

I expect retail beef prices will lag for the rest of this year, and perhaps into the Spring. Beyond that point, I see higher prices caused by lower production (the extra cattle that were slaughtered last year will yield no offspring). If you’re capable, think about buying a freezerful of beef this year, rather than next.

But on the short-term, I feel I got reasonable prices for some old cows that were no longer producing calves for us. With Winter coming, I have to remove some excess demand so that we can keep the best animals we have in a well-fed state until our warm season grasses start feeding the herd, and do it with what hay we have.

While our illustrious national leaders allowed themselves to be bought for a few shiny legislative trinkets, and foisted off a heavy load of low-quality debt onto the U.S. taxpayers, to which the Dow promptly tanked further, I continued to make money the old fashioned way, earning it through effort. To some people, that seems to be the hard way, out-of-touch with “the times”.

Now that the temperature is moderate enough here to leave some cattle standing in a pen for a while without them becoming thoroughly cooked, I am working the young cattle that have been growing up this summer. Over the last few days, I have weaned a half-dozen calves. This is a noisy process, because the calves, while no longer needing to nurse for nourishment reasons, still get comfort from their mother. And the mother cows continue to have a drive to nurture their babies, until they are ready to drop another.

So when they are forcibly separated, there are several days of call-and-return mooing and bawling going on. It doesn’t last all night, but it does restart first thing in the morning. We had company last weekend, so I delayed the start until Monday. While it is a noisy process, I have learned to live with it. My neighbors, none of which are any closer than 1/2 mile, don’t complain because they also raise cattle, and do the same thing when they need to.

This is the kind of farm practice that generates a lot of complaints and problems in places where subdivisions have been developed next to working farms. Part of it is a problem of expectations, because about 95% or more of the time, nothing like this is going on, and someone travelling by would admire the serene atmosphere. I am sure many people have bought homes near agricultural operations not knowing about weaning, roundups or harvest time, where large machines operate for a time from dawn to dusk, and sometimes into the evening by light.

So in addition to moving calves into the front pasture to separate them for weaning, I also started to cull my herd for Winter. I have been having to feed hay since the beginning of August, due to the extreme drought that has persisted here. I do not have a large enough hay supply to feed all the cattle I had all Winter. Mother Nature started the process for me, as in the last two weeks I have lost three cows who appear to have just become too weak to survive. Fresh, green grass is the best feed for cattle, alas there has been little of that here since Spring ended. So the weak got weaker, and because I didn’t pull them out soon enough, they didn’t make it.

Today I took three head to the sale barn (cattle auction ). One was a gal who is on the stringy side, and likely would not make it through tough winter. The other two are nice, plump and healthy, and also apparently barren. No sense in feeding cows that are unable to contribute any further to the herd. All three of these gals will probably end up being eaten with special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions on a sesame seed bun.

So after all I did today, I am tired tonight. But to me, it is a good tired, because I have made progress on managing my business here. Being your own boss requires a lot of self-discipline, because no one comes by and tells you what you need to be working on, or even to tell you that you were tardy. But any business needs the right things to be done at the right time to be successful. So I have to set objectives for myself, and then challenge myself to get the task done. Today, I feel good because I got my objectives accomplished. But tomorrow is another day. However, I’m going to the cattle auction… I like to see my cattle sell, and enjoy talking to some of the other cattle raisers in the area.