Gathering Beef

Since I last updated this site, I've been busy gathering and sorting cattle on the forest/range. We neighbor Idaho, so I started by helping them gather Elk Valley and sort our Wyoming cattle out of their herd and took back down the creek.

Then we started gathering the upper end of our allotment about the 5th of October and bumping the cattle a little closer to the corral. Our allotment spans 50-60,000 acres of steep mountain country. So there are a million draws, rocks, ridges, timber and basins the cattle hide in. And the cattle are all broke up in bunches of 4-10 and scattered all over the forest. It takes a lot of miles and very long days to get them all home.

Our main round up day for our allotment was October 10th. We ended up with 2/3 of the cattle that day. Everyday since then we ride and try to gather the remaining cows. We will vaccinated our calves in a couple more days when we finally get the majority of them home off the range. Then we with sex them and kick the heifer pairs in one pasture and the steer pairs in another until November 8th. We will bring them home the 8th and we ship the 9th.

So far we have had a gorgeous fall and its been warmer and drier than normal. It makes finding the remaining cattle tougher, but the days are so pleasant.

Here's a few pictures from the past 10 days or so.

The first snow of the fall since June. I was looking for cattle. Ken took the picture of me and Roany and Abby the dog.

Above is a hunting camp we rode into to ask the hunters if they had seen any cattle.

Dad in Elk Valley the day we sorted the Idaho and Wyoming cattle.

A black wolf I stumbled upon about 40 yards. I already had my phone out to take a picture of some cattle trailing and when I came over the ridge he was standing there and I was lucky to get a picture before he loped off.

A small winter kill buck I found.

Ken and I a couple days ago. First snow of the fall and thankful for it.

Ken took this of me while I was looking over a ridge for some cows. Kimes Ranch Jeans are the best jean I've ever worn by the way :)

Me with my pack of dogs moving some beef.

Aspens on fire!

We rode for 13 hours this day without a break, and still had a couple hours to go. So I aired out Black 2's back and let him rest for 30 min or so.

Got a bunch in the corral and stared sorting.

That's a brief update :) Also, I have had many requests for Christmas Cards over the years, so I finally made my first set. I still have calendars, photo books, drinkware and hoodies available if you are starting to think about Christmas!

Here's a link to the goods: https://skye-clarks-working-ranch-images.myshopify.com/collections/all