Burr, it’s Stock Show time, how many times in past years has the temperature plunged this time of year as the historic National Western Stock Show commenced. No doubt this frigid weather will have some impact on the attendance and hardship on exhibitors.
What readers need to know is the challenges this frigid weather has on ranchers and their livestock. I can relate to frigid weather because I grew up in one of the coldest regions in Colorado, far northwest Colorado, where the tiny enclave of Maybell had a recorded temperature of -62 below zero.
Growing up ten miles upstream from Maybell, on a remote cattle ranch, I learned a great deal about cold weather and the impact on livestock and caring for the animals.
First and foremost, if the cattle and horses can get hay, they can survive very frigid weather conditions. Hereford cattle historically have been the most rugged breed of cattle with their ability to withstand harsh and bitter cold weather.
Working ranch horses can withstand cold, but not as well as cattle. Horses will band together in a coral or pasture with their rear ends facing the wind. The more thoroughbred blood in the horse the more susceptible to frigid weather. Usually ranch horses have some sort of wind break in a pasture or corral, we never lost a horse or any livestock to frigid weather.
As a little tyke, and into my late teens, I experienced frigid weather conditions living seven miles from U.S.40. At times we would be snowed in for days awaiting a county snowplow to clear the dirt road. In springtime the road was a soggy mess.
Dog owners can relate to daily care of animals. Taking care of livestock is a 24/7 chore and in frigid weather very challenging. My heart goes out to those ranchers in Eastern Colorado where the winds can drift the snow and wind chill does exist.
My early day memories revolve around my father who would arise at 4 a.m. daily, stoke the coal stove warming the kitchen and boiling cowboy coffee, having a Lucky Strike brand cigarette or a Bull Durham smoke rolling your own cigarette. He would ultimately die of lung cancer at age 75, partially due to the smoking.
After the morning ritual of coffee and cigarettes he would venture to the coral area where we had a Jersey milk cow that had to be milked morning and night, sharing half of the milk with the cow’s calf, sucking half the milk from the cow’s udder while the milker used the other two cow teats to fill the milk bucket.
Next was a hearty breakfast and in my high school days he would roust me at 6:00 a.m. to drive the seven miles to catch the school bus traveling from Maybell to Craig. When I got home around 5 p.m. it was my job to milk the cow. I would squirt the cats open mouths with milk.
My memories start in the 1940s when horses were used for all ranch chores. We had two hefty gray Perchin work horses called “Wally” and “Dolly.” In the winter months, starting in November and lasting to late March, the team of horses pulled a sled in deep snow, or a rubber-tired wagon when there was less snow. The team would have to be harnessed to pull the sled through deep snow. When it snowed, the horses would have to break a trail thru the deep snow to the pasture haystack. The cattle were awaiting their breakfast of grass hay.
Inside a fenced hay corral, the hay had to be pitched by hand onto the sled, then the team would be taken in a circle with the hay being pitched off manually. I did this with my dad on many occasions when out of school. Sometimes he did the hay chore by himself and would drape the reins over the sled or wagon wooden frame as the team pulled the hay sled through the deep snow breaking a trail with cattle following the sled. Sometimes we would have a “hired man” or “ranch hand” who lived in a bunkhouse on the ranch. Usually, old cowboys with many tales to relate, as we enjoyed my mother’s good cooking.
I can remember, like yesterday, being home from CSU at Christmas break helping my dad feed the cattle, riding on the rear of the rubber-tired wagon with a recorded -50-degree morning. The snow cracked under the rubber tires as we rolled along. We wore wool long underwear, rubber overshoes and winter coats, a Levi jacket over a sweater was normal. Once the physical hay pitching began the exercise warmed the body against the winter chill. The physical activity is why those football players could play the freezing Kansas City football game this past weekend.
Feeding the animals was only half of the task. The animals had to have water. Since we lived along the Yampa River, the cattle and horses would drink from the river, but the river would freeze solid in the cold weather and every morning the ice had to be chopped from a waterhole for the animals. A fence on the ice kept the animals from straying onto the ice where the ice was thinner and they could drown, it did happen on occasion. This routine happened every day, sunshine, or blizzard conditions.
Now as years progressed Wally and Dolly were replaced by tractors and attached hay forks to load and unload the hay without manual labor. Following the end of World War II, mechanism modernized agriculture. Horsepower meant engines, not workhorses. However, we kept the two horses for emergencies where only the team could prevail against the very deep snows. The ice still had to be chopped and that precious milk cow, milked twice a day. Her milk was placed in a wooden ice box where ice was harvested from the river in square blocks and stacked in a log cabin with each layer insulted with coal slack to preserve the ice into summer months. I can recall, as a tyke, being chased away from the ice operation so I wouldn’t fall in the open ice hole.
When you enjoy those steaks and hamburgers remember that a ranching family is raising those animals with daily chores, sometimes in adverse weather conditions, to eventually reach your tables. The stock show honors the agricultural community.
God Bless my father Henry, who taught me how to work.