Getting Ready for Winter Looks Different Around Here
Some weeks on the ranch are about what needs doing today.
Others are about getting ready for what's coming next.
This week was a little of both.
Come along with me. I think we'll have to get you a pair of your own work gloves!
Monday started with the end of our staff meeting.
This new pasture has a rock pile in it that the calves thought was pretty neat.
If you caught our videos earlier this week, you saw quite a few members of the T Bar J staff gathered at the gate, loudly expressing their opinions about where they thought they ought to be.
Monday, we finally adjourned the meeting and opened the gate.
They didn't waste much time.
A few minutes later, the bellering had stopped, and everybody had their heads down in fresh grass.
Apparently they approved of management's decision.
More than 1,200 of you have already come along for moving day with us.
Tuesday, we started getting ready for winter.
It may still be August, but winter is never very far from a rancher's mind in Montana.
Stene hauled in the last of the hay we'll need, and Al unloaded and laid it in the hay yard.
Stene's dog, Duke, came along to supervise.
There's a pretty good feeling that comes with looking across the hay yard and knowing what our cattle will need this winter is sitting right there.
But getting the hay home is only part of it.
Wednesday, we checked what we have—and who may need a little extra.
We sampled both our alfalfa and grass hay this week.
We have a hay probe that cuts a core from inside the bales. We combine samples from several bales, bag them, and send them to a lab in Nebraska to analyze things like protein and energy.
Those results help us know what we're actually feeding and make better decisions about what our cattle need.
We'd rather know than guess.
We also body-condition scored the cattle this week.
This time of year, we're watching especially closely for anyone who's getting a little thin before winter.
This is a first-calf heifer. She's doing a good job raising her calf while she's still growing herself. No ribs or backbone sticking out here.
I always put the date on our body-condition-score pictures so we can compare them over time.
Some of our older cows would do better not traveling so far for water every day. As our pasture rotation brings them back by the house, we'll keep a few of those older girls closer, where we can watch them and make life a little easier for them.
Good cattle care isn't always about doing more.
Sometimes it's simply noticing who needs something a little different.
Thursday, it was time to start filling freezers.
Our first pork deliveries went out today.
Our first stop was Calvin's.
Calvin is our feed salesman and grew up on a ranch in eastern Montana. He's one of the people we rely on when we're making decisions about the developer pellet we feed our steers.
He understands feeding from a rancher's perspective, and we appreciate that.
And every year, Calvin buys pork from our 4-H pigs.
I suppose that's ranch country for you.
He helps us feed the steers. We help fill his freezer.
Then we headed to Emily's.
Emily and her family get a half T Bar J beef and a whole pig every year.
And with two boys heading into high school, I don't imagine much of it is going to sit around very long.
Along with their pork, we brought hamburger patties, beef sticks, honey, and our new brats—which turned out looking enough like hot dogs that that's what everybody is calling them.
We had some ourselves for supper tonight. Whatever we call them, they're good. 😄
Emily has enough T Bar J hats by now, so this year she picked one of our new tea towels instead.
But it was something she said about filling her freezer that stuck with me.
With two boys heading into high school, she couldn't imagine having to buy all that meat at the grocery store on top of their regular groceries.
And besides that, she said it wouldn't taste as good—and she wouldn't know anything about where it came from.
Then she said getting all that meat into the freezer was “like Christmas.”
I knew exactly what she meant.
A half beef. A whole pig. A freezer full of meals for their family.
They're ready for winter.
And I get that same feeling when I drive past our hay yard now.
There it is.
The hay our cattle will need this winter is laid in the yard, ready to go—and it's paid for.
There's a sense of relief that comes with that.
Whatever winter brings, we've prepared for it. The feed is here. It's taken care of.
I think that's probably a lot like what Emily feels when she looks in her freezer.
Her family's meat is there. She knows where it came from. And it's taken care of.
That's really what buying beef in bulk is about.
Not just pounds of beef. Meals.
Knowing what you're going to feed your family.
Knowing where it came from.
And opening the freezer on a busy night and knowing the hardest part of supper is already there.
Our fall beef harvest is coming up, and we still have T Bar J beef shares available.
Whether a 1/8 beef is just right for your smaller freezer, or you're feeding a family like Emily's and a 1/2 beef makes more sense, we'll help you figure out what fits your household.
And with every beef share reserved, we'll donate 5 pounds of T Bar J ground beef to the Montana Veterans Meat Locker in your name through our Montana 5 for Those Who Served.
So while you are getting your own freezer ready, you're helping put good beef in someone else's too
See our fall beef shares and choose the size that fits your family.
Thank you for supporting a local rancher.
P.S. We also dropped off our silent-auction box for Troop 42's Pinewood Derby this Saturday. They're raising money to help cover expenses for the adults who chaperone their Scout trips. Troop 42 is also raffling one of our T Bar J Steak Boxes this month. Emily promised to get us a picture of whoever takes the silent-auction box home, so hopefully I'll have that to share with you next week.
