Stockers

It's been a very long time since my last post - and much has happened in that time. To summarize: I went to an awesome music festival outside L.A., contracted walking pneumonia for 2 weeks and was unable to work, and stocker season officially began.

Stockers are cattle that come from another ranch to be fattened up on our pasture. Last week the first shipment of 120 cattle arrived from Hawaii. There are four more shipments that will be arriving in the next four weeks bringing a total of 500 cattle. T.O. Cattle Co. will raise the cattle through the winter and spring, when the grass is the most productive, and then ship the cattle somewhere else to get finished. T.O. is paid for each pound that the cattle gain.

For the season, the cattle will be over at the Hollister Hills Ranch - a state park in Hollister, CA. Last week the first shipment arrived - the cows were wild! Not literally but as Joe explained, they are very sensitive because they haven't been handled often, or well. We spent two days working with the cattle, using low stress handling techniques to acclimate the cattle to being handled.

I was also able to work on the grazing plan for the 2009-10 season at Hollister Hills. It was fun to sit over the huge piece of paper, planning every move that the cattle will make throughout the season. I like thinking about the logistics and planning aspect of running the cattle.

Last week was also the first time I've been to Hollister Hills. I was given the task of making the electric fence hot and spent the majority of the day running all over the ranch trying to understand how the fence system was set up and where the different fields are and how they are connected. It was stressful but I feel pretty confident I could get the fence hot real quick, with no problems.

I'm going to try to post more in the next few weeks. I only have three weeks left in California before I head home for the holidays. I'm looking forward to what the next few weeks have to bring!