Cutting Bull Calves

Last month we spent a couple of Saturday mornings cutting 200 Corriente bull calves. Those of you who are not versed in this way of life may want to skip this post. Just thought I should put a disclaimer in there for some of my scrapping buddies. However, if you enjoy a good steak, this is part of the reason that steak is juicy and tender. Bulls do not make good beef so after a couple of snips, they become steers. The beef marketing system favors steer carcasses and the steers are generally more docile and easier to handle. However, these pictures are of Corriente cattle and they aren't used for beef - these are roping cattle. We raise both beef and Corriente cattle. Many people seem to be interested in life here on the ranch and this is part of it. Just keepin it real, but wanted to warn those of you who may not wish for quite so much reality.

Seems we picked the coldest mornings to cut them this year. It was only 19 this morning. I thought twice about even heading out to take pictures, but then I thought of you - and how you have requested more about the daily happenings around here so I donned multiple layers and braved the frigid, morning air for you.


DH starts out preparing the buckets with a mixture of hot water and a medicated iodine in order to keep everything disinfected.




Then he gives out instructions to work the cattle easy. No sense getting everything stirred up. We try to keep the cattle from getting any more stressed than necessary. The Corriente cattle are a little more ornery than the beef cattle.

Everyone has their designated job. Here is DD handing Grandpa the emasculators. They go back into the silver bucket when he is through with them, and the nuts, aka calf fries, go into the blue bucket. The dogs make themselves sick on some of them and we divvy up the rest amongst the crew. We usually throw ours into the freezer and cook them up sometime during the summer.







At 6'3, DS is right handy as part of the ground crew.




Actually, everyone rotates. Everyone who wants to rope, gets to rope.

DH loves to rope

and he's good at it:

Gotta love a man on the back of a horse:

with a rope in his hand:

DS tried his hand at bull doggin on this ornery critter as we all cheered him on:

This was our entertainment for the morning:

We're easy to entertain:



5.6 seconds! Not bad!

The kids have never just been just spectators around here.

They have always been integral parts of the daily happenings on the ranch. They started opening gates when they were 2. It was so cute to watch them clamber onto the gate, wrestle with the chain, scramble back down and swing the gate open. This task was always tended to with a huge grin and a great sense of accomplishment. So this year DD was promoted to a new position. She became the official 'Cutter of Bull Calves':

Not sure where that may one day fit in on a college application, but hey, it's all part of a day's work around here! Even a girl makes a hand at the end of this dirt road.