No room at the Inn

Greetings from Elkhorn Creek Ranch near the epicenter of the Bakken oil formation!

It's official. We are at war with the weather.  December and January were beautiful and then came February and March.  The ONLY positive to 'winter 2012-13' is that there isn't much snow on the ground.  It has been COLD and WINDY and I am getting crabbier by the day.

So here we are... Two weeks into calving and it has been a struggle.  Thankfully we have a great support staff.  Pete's mom has a hot meal ready frequently and both G-ma's help shuttle Kyle around and take care of him.  Pete's dad is always there to help and my dad loves to feed hay for us, but honestly with the miserable weather calving has been more than a full time job for the two of us.

NOTE - as I write, my 'normal 3:00 a.m. shift' (in theory, each of us has been trying to get 6 hours of sleep a day) started a couple hours early with Pete coming in and waking me with news that he had to take '515' to the Watford City Veterinary Clinic.  Her abnormal presentation after exploratory palpation was upside down, twisted and backwards.  He probably should have counted heads, ears and feet!

So he loaded her up and headed down the road to see Dr. Pedersen at 1:58 A.M... Another topic for another day... the dedication of mixed animal (large and small) practice vets.

PAUSE.

It is now 4:55 P.M.  Pete made it home from the vet clinic twelve hours ago with a healthy cow, but twins that did not survive.  Every year in October we have all of our cows ultra sounded by High Plains Vet Clinic out of Sidney, Montana.  They tell us the cow's due dates and if they are having a bull calf or a heifer calf.  Dr. Hovde has never missed twins before, but this one surprised us.

In the mean time, we have had nine calves (which have been weighed and tagged with most of them spending the first couple hours of their lives in the 'warming box') since midnight.  We have cleaned and re-bedded the calving barn and the close up cows, fed and watered all the close up and recently delivered cows, milked the colostrum from '515', done a couple loads of laundry, made some phone calls and started supper.

Pete in that same time has showed the sale bulls and heifers to three private treaty customers and made some additional phone calls concerning the business it takes to run a ranch...

SO, combined, we are working on 7 hours of sleep.  Hopefully, if the wind dies down tonight we can go from hourly calving checks to every two hour checks for one night before the wickedly cold temperatures set in again tomorrow.  If the wind doesn't settle, it will be another sleepless night (and they are really starting to string together)!  Old Man Winter holds all the cards... TGIA (thank goodness for adrenaline).

The 3:00 AM survival gear!

Note - the average highs for March are in the 40's with lows in the double digits.  NOT this year!

The alarm set for hourly check reminders.

I heard someone say eat the ground hog and lynch the weathermen this year.  I don't think those things would help, but I am thinking spring for sanity's sake (thus the Ground Hog and the Weathermen's sake).

The real feel was -24 out side, but ONLY zero in the calving barn this fine night.

A heated calving barn is on my wish list.  In the mean time, these 'warming boxes' warm and dry new born babies.  Once they are dry they spend a day in the calving barn before heading out with the other pairs.  Once out with the other pairs they have wind break and lots of straw for bedding.

The calving barn this morning after regrouping and catching up from the very cold night, very hectic night.  Everyone was especially glad to see the sun this morning.

More happy pairs... As you can see, the INN is FULL!

Until next time, here's to another sleepless night!

Flipping the PSYCHO switch

Greetings from Elkhorn Creek Ranch near the epicenter of the Bakken oil formation!

Calving season is easing into a rhythmic schedule keeping all hands on deck very busy.

Some background information - last June (2012) we spent the entire month AI-ing (artificially inseminating) and ET-ing (embryo transferring) our heifers and cows.  These technologies are available to the beef cattle industry to affordably bring the best possible genetics into our cow herd and offer them to our bull and female customers on an annual basis.  To get those babies which are products of our June 2012 labors to our customers in 2014, we have to get the March born calves into the world alive and healthy.  Some days its pretty easy.  Some days it is more difficult and frustrating.  The two things that can make the day of the 'hands on deck' easy or difficult are: 1) mother nature (the weather in March can go either way) and 2) if the cows are agreeable to becoming a mother the day they deliver (which nearly 100% of the time they are, but once in a while... the PSYCHO switch flips).

This year, we are calving out 60 heifers (first time mothers).  Special consideration goes into breeding them to 'calving ease' bulls.  Those bulls typically sire calves that are light weight, and built long and slender when born to ease the parturition (calving) process for the first time mother.  The remainder of the 250 head in the herd have 'been there, done that' at least once (many, more times than my Grandma Hovet - she had 10 kids) before, making the weather the less predictable variable to calving cows (as opposed to heifers).

So on Monday, Pete was in town at a McKenzie County Grazing Association meeting and I was with a Field Specialist with MVTL (Missouri Valley Testing Laboratory) who was testing and certifying both of the water wells on the ranch prior to the start of oil drilling near them.  I was also on 'heifer duty' at the time.  As I drove back into the yard after meeting with MVTL, I saw that there was a heifer that had just calved in the calving pen.  I also saw that she wasn't doing much to get her calf licked off (a nurturing response that cleans the calf up after birth and also encourages them to stand and nurse for the first time).  She was instead smashing it into the ground with her head and basically trying to kill it by mauling.

This very frustrating 'condition' which I have coined 'flipping the psycho switch' is hormone related and usually after it happens to a heifer (if she doesn't kill her calf first), she becomes an incredibly protective mother that takes very good care of her calf.  The psycho switch flips less than 2% of the time in heifers according to our observations.  We maybe have one of these heifers per year that flips their psycho switch.  They typically don't get to stay in the herd and after their calf is weaned, they are sold (in the event they do it again the next year, or pass it on to their daughters).

So, I mentioned that Pete was in town at a meeting and '1228' was trying to kill her calf.  I grabbed the calf sled, ran out doing the 'monkey dance' with it, scared her off the calf and sledded the little heifer back into the barn.  I then, with the assistance of Pete's dad, Lyle, got the heifer in the calving barn (there was absolutely no way she was going to 'the place' the black sled had disappeared to).  The psycho switch was stilled flipped 'on' and 1228 was NOT gaining points with me.

Once in the calving barn with the pair, I got to use my beloved Mother's Day present from several years back (and I am not being sarcastic).  It is a Vern's Manufacturing Maternity pen and slick as sliced bread.  I LOVE THAT THING!  So, we got the heifer in, got her in the head catch with some hay in front of her and administered 1 cc of oxytocin.  Oxytocin is a hormone which responds 'milk let down' and also in short (not on the label, but observed to be true), 'makes a mom love her kid'.  It is magic and although we seldom have to use it, we keep it on hand because when you need it, you need it NOW.

We got the calf it's first colostrum (which is very important for them to have from their mother and in a timely fashion), which provides them with many natural immunities that will protect their health for the rest of their lives.  Once the calf was full, she went and laid down in the corner of the pen.  I then let the heifer out of the head catch and found that... the PSYCHO switch was still ON.  Leaving the calf in the maternity pen, I let the heifer out into the main part of the calving barn.  She proceeded to go from pen to pen (including the maternity pen where her calf was) in the calving barn trying to get to any calf she could with premeditated intentions of mauling any little black fur ball that she could get to.  Of course she couldn't get any of them though the panels of their pens, but she was still very confused, very angry, and very psycho.

Having a happy and protected calf, I went to the house to record the updates of the day into our 2013 calving records and hope that this crazy heifer straightened out after she 'cleaned' - the process of expelling the placenta after parturition (calving).  This too is hormone related and is typically what flips the PSYCHO switch to the OFF position.

Two hours later, I went out to find that she had cleaned.  I opened the gate to the maternity pen where '1228's' calf was.  She walked into the pen and started loving it immediately.  1228 will not remain in our herd next year for this unforgivable behavior, but it brings to life the ongoing debate of Nature vs. Nurture...  What do you think?

1228 and her heifer calf (under the influence of oxytocin)

Proof that this little heifer calf didn't get the nurturing love to start her life that most calves get from their mothers (she is not licked off and is full of dirt from getting mauled into the ground).  Remember, this seldom happens.  It is a good reminder of how tough and resourceful these babies are... She is less than an hour old in this picture.

Oxytocin, the hormone used for both obstetrics and in milk let-down.  It is always on hand, but seldom used.

1228 prior to 'cleaning' (expelling her placenta) - still 'psychotic', trying to  get to 127's calf.

Back at the Ranch...

Greetings!

I will point out before the text gets going, this is testimony of the ever changing seasons of North Dakota.

From this:

to this:

2013 is already into the last month of the first quarter.  Amazing how time flies!  Officially, I have packed away my passport for the year and will focus the next 60 days on bringing babies into the world (fluffy, black, 4 legged, ruminant kinds - hopefully about 250 of them).  Those 60 days will be followed by lots of other busi-ness (and business) until October when those March and April babies are weaned and on a good growing / development ration at Pesek Farms in the western part of McKenzie County near the productive Yellowstone Valley (Montana / North Dakota boarder).

How I missed the first two months of 2013 at the ranch?  Three days in Bismarck at the legislative session (with RLND), ten days in Brazil in January also with my RLND (Rural Leadership North Dakota) class and eight days in California visiting Pete's sister, Carmen and her crew.  For the math, of the first 53 days of 2013, I was on the road or in the air 22 of them.

For me personally, two amazing things happen when I travel and they aren't in any particular order.  First, I learn A LOT about life - specifically, how little I know about it.  You can read about things and be lectured on them.  You can watch them on TV or google them on the Internet, but until touching and feeling and pondering FIRST hand there really isn't that 'moment' of true understanding and appreciation that only experiencing something can provide.  Secondly, venturing out really makes me appreciate HOME so very, very much.  It truly is affirmation to those internal struggles of finding 'the key to happiness' or defining 'the meaning of life'.  It was great to go and it is great to be back home...

Some of the traveling highlights if you are interested:

BISMARCK - LEGISLATIVE SESSION

RLND class V at the 2013 session of the 63rd assembly of the North Dakota Legislature with Senator Rich Wardner of District 37 which includes the city of Dickinson.

BRAZIL

A sand sculpture on Copacabana Beach, Rio De Janeiro - with the Brazilian flag flying.

Me at the Hata Ranch, Pantanal Notre region, Moto Grosso state

Me with a group of Mr. Hata's 5,000 Nellore beef cows which he runs on 37,000 acres with year round grazing.

Boots in Brazil - Cassidy Kersten, Stacy Artz, Breanne Ilse, Vawnita Best

Our last morning in Rio

CALIFORNIA

Kyle's first time flying.  Busy reading the Delta safety brochure.  Important stuff when you are 4 1/2.  

Patiently awaiting his Trolley Car ride in San Francisco.

Trolley car ride.

Kyle and Pete at the Trolley Car Museum.

Kyle at the Trolley Car Museum.

G & G Best and Kyle riding the Trolley car in San Francisco.

Our Agri-tour of the Salinas Valley north of Monterey, the world's salad bowl - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salinas_Valley  

A demonstration on how to prepare an artichoke.

A field of artichokes, cousins to thistle.  I know.  A thistle field.

Field workers harvesting a field of broccoli.

Our tour guide to the right, Evan (a professor and researcher at the local agricultural universities in California) who focused on wine production with his food science research provided great insight into the area's agriculture and production practices used to grow many varieties of lettuce, numerous vegetables, strawberries, raspberries, and grapes (for wine making) and artichokes, all in both conventional and organic production systems.

Commercial raspberry production.

At the ocean, Pacific Grove CA.  Kyle tide pooling.

Grandpa Lyle and Kyle rock climbing at the beach, Pacific Grove CA.

Must move aggregate while at the beach.

Toes in the sand near Pacific Grove CA.

Up close with the creatures at the Monterey Aquarium CA -http://www.montereybayaquarium.org 

Amazing aquatic wonders to watch for this High Plains native.

Cousin Sara and Kyle enjoying their time together and experiencing the Monterey Aquarium.

To close, it was a great start to 2013.  My travels have been absolutely wonderful and although I love the rock I live under, I still try not to let it hinder my view...

AND, it is sooo good to be home, even if the chore for the day is sorting and moving cows in a snow storm.

Merry Christmas, from ours to you!

Merry Christmas from the epicenter of the Bakken Oil formation!

I have written and mailed a Christmas greeting every year since 1996.  Some years this greeting consisted of a few lines on a post card and some years an elaborate picture card and letter.

This year, I decided to 'KISS' (Keep It Simple Stupid (don't tell Kyle I just used this word or I will be in big trouble with him)) the holiday season and along the way save some postage, paper and time.

As always, it has been a crazy and busy year for us and this once cozy little community that we are privileged to call home.   Cattle prices have been strong.  Flourishing economies in Japan and other places abroad have made the high quality genetics of the high plains much more valuable than they once were.  The Bakken is crazy right now and is good for Main Street, but at the same time hard on infrastructure and stress levels.

Business is good and the family is doing well also!  Pete's mom and dad moved into their new house (on the ranch) in late August.  Kyle loves have them close and so do we.  My mom and dad are enjoying retirement.  Did I mention that Pete quit his 'town' career in February 2012?  He doesn't get off the place much now.  Lucky duck!  I past four months I worked for the new veterinarians in town helping them with the things that small start up businesses need help with.  December 21st was my last day there.

Kyle has a new cousin, Jaden a new sister and Kim and Lee a new daughter.  Morgan Rita Murphy was born on November 30th.

WE HAVE NOT MOVED BUT HAVE A NEW ADDRESS (compliments of the dysfunction that comes with having a mega influx of people moving into a sleepy little community in a very short period of time).  PLEASE UPDATE OUR ADDRESS TO:

Pete, Vawnita and Kyle Best
1930 118th Ave NW
Watford City ND 58854

(If our 911 address is 19030, the little post office in the middle of the Bakken will happily send your mail back to you and not deliver it to us.  They take great pride in following ALL the rules.)

Our dining room Christmas tree!  Merry Christmas from the ranch!

Our basement Christmas tree, a badlands cedar.  Yes, the lights are GREEN and GOLD.  Yes.  As a matter of fact they are BISON green and gold.  Why, yes!  They are playing for the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP on January 5th!
GO BISON!

Our Christmas Eve supper (Pete was sick in bed most of the day).... tenderloins from our own beef, Mexican style green beans and cheezy cauliflower.  YUM!  After the reading of the First Christmas and supper, we watched the movie ELF and went to bed awaiting Santa's visit.

We are thankful for friends and family as we look back at 2012!  We understand that our fortunes and freedoms are those very few ever experience!  We know that we live in a special place and we are thankful for being able to live, work and play here close to the things that we cherish, value and love!

From our back deck on Christmas Day morning 2012!

BEST WISHES FOR A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Pete, Vawnita, Kyle, Tyra and the rest of the crew (three cats, sixteen horses and two hundred and forty  cows)

Weaning, Winter and 'the Works'.....

Greetings from the epicenter of the Bakken Oil Formation.

Since my last post, our short fall has since slipped away and winter has been with us for a couple months now.

We have gathered and brought home pairs, weaned calves, ultra-sounded (pregnancy checked) cows and carried out the typical 'winter activities' that normally go on in the high plains region.

Our last couple months in pictures (and in reverse order):

Kyle with Santa Clause.  ONLY ONE request:  A REAL cement truck that makes REAL cement.  No problem.

Pete bringing hay to the home place after an early significant accumulation in November.

November brought the North Dakota Angus Association annual meeting and awards banquet.  Above is the awards table as well as an inventory of North Dakota wine which was auctioned to benefit an Angus family which had recently faced tragedy. 

The head table that was honored at the annual banquet.  Duane and Rita Opp were awarded the 'Man of the Year' award recognizing Angus breeders for their life time achievement.  To their right, the Lambourn family, 'Commercial Breeder's of the Year'.  This award recognizes commercial cattlemen for their commitment to stewardship and Angus cattle. 

Dr. Gullickson ultra-sounding cows in November.  The majority of the herd was ultra-sounded in October (when the fetuses are easy to image, age and sex).  During this same 'chute run' in November all the cows were boosted (for adulthood vaccinations) and 'bled' to screen them for two diseases of concern in the domestic brood cow population, Johnes and Leukosis.

The cows being gathered for their November chute work.... the equivalent of  'flu clinics' for humans.

Kyle and Grandpa Lyle enjoying the first snow fall of the year in early October.

Huckle napping in the dirty laundry.

Kyle and Great Grandma Olga on Halloween

Our 'birthdays of fall' being celebrated - Brad, Pete, Lee and Kyle.

Bringing cows home from summer / fall pastures.  Pete and our friend, Jason McLennon crossing Rough Creek.

Eva and I 'turning' the herd.

Trailing a group home from the Rough Creek pasture... Pete and Dos, Kurt and Oops, Jason McLennon and Hoss.

Our trip to Fargo for the NDSU Homecoming game!  GO BISON (and yes, they are still going)!

Kyle and Grandma Rita harvested their squash and sunflowers in late September.  Lucky me!  I had a beautiful fall display on the fire place hearth.

Here is to a fall of reflection and meaning which 'fell' right into a winter that to date has been about right!  Until next time,  HAPPY TRAILS!