"Haulin' Cows"

Yesterday morning (Saturday) we were loading in Busby, MT. This is in southeaster Montana, but more towards central than Baker is. Well its kind of hard to tell you where it is. Anyway, its in Montana, enough said.

So it was a really pretty day, and I was thinking I ought to take some pictures to share with you a little of the charm of "hauling cows."

This is a common scene, though there usually arn't quite this many trucks, and we don't usually stay there waiting for so long. This particular day there were about 10 trucks loading. Its not unusualy to load with 4-6, and we've loaded with many more than that and a lot less too.

This particular ranch is owned by some people out of Texas. We loaded there last year too. Its kind of neat cause a couple of the guys get all dudded out. We're talking chaps, vest, spurs, and a pistol in the holster on the hip. This year one of them had a bull whip he was using too. For whatever reason they wait till later in the morning to bring in the cattle and weigh them etc. So even though we were told to be there at 9:30am, we didn't get loaded and out of there till 1:45 that afternoon. The day before the guys didn't get loaded till 2:00 so I guess we were ahead of schedule.


Usually kind of frustrating, but in this case there was visiting to do, and naps to catch up on, and some quiet peaceful reading time too. Take notice of the picture painted on the back of the trailer above.

Here's a close up. Its cute. "Bull Wagon" or "Bull Rack" is a slang term for cattle trucks. There's a lot of slang in trucking. I ought to do a blog on that. Just give you a little dictionary of trucking terms.

Here's a little shot of some of the people there working the cattle. I'm not sure exactly what they were doing, maybe sorting them into smaller groups for loading. I wasnt' paying that much attention.

I was giving more attention to the herd of horses standing next to my truck and having a dissagreement across the fence. Apparently no one likes this guy, cause they all took turns coming over and fussing with him. And no, its not that he's a stud and they're mares. I think they were all gledings.

There is lots more to "haulin cows." I was going to get pictures of loading, but they had a wind break at the loading chutes that blocked my view of the cattle, etc. And its usually dark when we unload, so no luck there. I'll get to it eventually, maybe tomorrow. We're loading near Baker.

And when I say we're loading there tomorrow, well we will have already done so by the time I post this, cause its Sunday night, just after that tornado, and since I posted that, I'll probably not even post this till Tuesday. So, it will be old news, but maybe I'll have new picutres by then to finish the story of "haulin cows."

In the mean time, the heifers in the shot above were dropped off last night in Kansas at the biggest buffett they've ever seen. They'll be there for 2-3 months. We take them in at 875-1025lbs and they stay at the feed lots till they are 1300lbs, at which point they leave the smorgasbord....and become part of yours.