Ranching: The School of Life

by Linda Jordens Galayda, Texas Rancher Girl

Many associations, colleges, conventions, and large ranches offer a school curriculum for successful ranching. But did you ever stop to think that your ranch serves up a school of life every single day? Yep, everything from life basics to some pretty advanced do-or-die classes. I thought maybe we could take a look at some of these life lessons as they apply to our daily ranch agendas. Ranch life is not always convenient or easy. We may start out with a plan for the day; but today, some animal in the herd has another plan. For ranchers, no matter the difficult circumstances, we must be ready and willing to work through the different and complex scenarios the day presents. There is no better classroom than ranch life and Problem Solving 101 begins in calving season.

As ranchers, we have already prepared bulls, which were selected to accommodate heifer calving ease and herd genetics with limited breeding of 90 days; cows are in BCS of five or better; cows were palpated with attention to all physical attributes for culling; hay, supplements, minerals, winter pastures all planned for optimum nutrition; appropriate vaccine protocols administered. Every effort has been made to maintain a healthy mother so she will produce a healthy baby. She is given a beautiful environment, lots of clean space, pure water and great food, and sanctioned welfare handling that Temple Grandin would be proud of – what could possibly go wrong?

Well, let me tell you about just a few days in the Ranch School of Life. Yes, we talk about the weather, but we better prayerfully make friends with Mother Nature because she has a way of taking us hostage. Cold and rain together can be a lethal combination for cattle – so that week of rain and 20-degree temperatures started a series of events. On Monday, we found a cow that tried to deliver twins during the night; one lived and she died trying to deliver the second calf. We grabbed the shivering, little survivor, tubed him with colostrum, and brought him in to a warm stall we have prepared for dogies. On Tuesday, we saved a cow and calf in breach delivery. On Wednesday, a heifer needed assistance in delivery; mother and baby are doing fine. Thursday brought another set of twins; both calves were weak. We brought the cow and her calves into the barn for extra feed and attention. In our rounds, we found an abandoned calf in the heifer pasture and took that calf to the orphan pen – we’ll deal with his mother later. By the end of the week, we had five babies on a bottle. But here’s the astounding good news, the mother of the twins wants them all; she thinks they are all hers and wants to nurse them all.

Life’s lesson: ranchers don’t have safe spaces. The days can be exhausting and filled with issues demanding our attention and resolution, but the rewards outweigh the difficulties. We learn to be tough but compassionate. We learn that all things don’t work out like we would like them to, and sometimes we have to face a terminal ending. But sometimes we also see things work out better than we anticipated – like a mother that thinks she has five babies. My veterinarian told me early on that calving season is like putting 500 women in the maternity ward at the same time. Everything will not go perfectly. But for the 3-percent problem rate we face, there is the 97-to-98-percent perfect delivery. Think about that. God’s precious miracles delivered perfectly. You can’t get closer to real life than that. Ranchers live real life every day – the good, the not so good, and sometimes the heart breaker. But we wouldn’t change a thing.

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