Off To Market We Go..............

One thing I believe a lot of people do not realize is that when you raise beef cattle for a living, you get paid once a year, for the most part.  You might sale an old cow or an old bull at different times,  through out the year, but your biggest pay check comes once a year, when you sell your calves.  The calves have been raised and it's time to sell.  The crazy thing is, is that we take them to an auction and just hope we get a good price.  I wish we could state how much we want for them, but it does not work that way.  I would like to be able to say "well, it cost us this much to raise them, we need to make a little profit, so this is how much we are charging".  You know, like a grocery store would do.  However, that is not how it works in the Ag world.  You put a lot of effort into raising your crops and then when it is time to sell, you pretty much ask "what will you pay me for it?"   So if the market is up and people are paying good money for our commodity,  life on the farm is good.  But, when the market is down and people are not paying a lot of money for our commodity, life on the farm can get very tough.
This quote from John F. Kennedy, pretty much sums it up. 
  "The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways."

 My Farmer has been watching the market for the last few weeks and he has decided this is the week to sale. So we loaded up the calves and they are off.  That made it sound easy, which of course it was not.  When it is below zero outside and there is a foot or more of snow, it is a lot of work just getting things ready to ship.  You have to get the truck ready, which doesn't like to run in the cold, shovel out all the gates to and in the coral, and then load the animals.   And sometimes, just the actual loading of the animals can be an adventure.  I was really looking forward to this, because I needed something new to blog about.  However, it went very smoothly and was very uneventful.  I believe My Farmer is purposely making sure things go smoothly, so I can't blog about him.  (I just don't get it)(hehe).  

So the yearlings (that's what we call the calves that are around 1 year old) are at the sale yard and our job of raising them is done. We take a lot of pride in raising our cattle, and hopefully someone sees that and is willing to pay a good price.   In the meantime, I will be waiting for that check in the mail, hoping that it will pay all my bills.  I'm sure it will.  It has too.  Cuz I sure do like Livin' the farm life, and I don't want to have to get a real job.......(smiles). 

Lessons Learned from working with Cattle.....

When someone yells at you, don't take it personally........A lot of yelling takes place when working cattle, sometimes at the animal, sometimes at the people.  It's important to remember that the person raising their voice is probably just frustrated at the cattle and not me you.  Remember the old saying, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.  (But I highly recommend not saying this to the person in the corral, it does not go over well......(teehee))

It's OK to get mad, but then get over it.........Working cattle can be very trying.  You will not always see eye to eye with the other people on where they  you should be standing or pushing the cattle.  I've learned it's OK to get mad, but once the moment is over and the job is done, get over it and move on.  Life is to short, plus it takes way more muscles to frown than it does to smile.

Stay Focused on your goal; when going from point A to point B, have your planned route, be prepared for unexpected bumps and turns, stay focused, but do not give up .........When herding cattle, most of the time they are not going to go the direction you want them to go.  They have a mind of their own and do not follow directions at all.  Some will try their darnedest to go in the opposite direction of the way you want them to go (and some will succeed), but stick with them no matter what, let them know who really is in charge, and do not give up until they are where you want them to be.  Accomplishment is a good feeling.

Never lose faith............We have had many calves that would not suckle their moms for one reason or another.  Some times it takes only once helping them, and other times it takes way more. When it takes longer, you start to lose faith.  But when you get to that point and think they are never going to get it, something will seem to just click in their little heads and boom just like that they start suckling on their own.  When this happens, there is usually a lot of  hip hip hooraying, hand fist pumping the air, smiling, and really fast tail wagging (from the calf of course). And once again, life is good.

They're not as stupid as you think.......Or is it that we are not as smart as we think we are?  Nope that's not it.  Don't think I will expand on that.

The more fun you can put into work, the less work it is.......I find this true when we have family and friends help us with working the cattle.  My Farmer and I are always a little stressed and uptight trying to get everything done.  When someone from the "outside" shows up to help, they always seem happy to be there, thrilled to be helping out, and this cheerful attitude just seems to radiate around to us, and it is no longer a work we dread, but a work we look forward to.  Enjoy life, you will live longer (I'm sure someone did a study on that).

And no matter how hard you try, sometimes you just end up getting the shitty end of the deal.  And that's OK because it does wash off......and believe me, that IS Livin' the life, the Farm life that is........