These days are long and gritty...but they are my favorite.

We spent the day preconditioning calves yesterday. It was a long dusty day, but these are my favorite days. We had great helpers, great company, and great weather. I got my steps in for the day and definitely slept well last night!

We started by sorting them off their mothers, then sorting them by gender. Then, we ran them through the chute, gave vaccinations, and got them ready for the next big step in their lives.

Preconditioning is a series of management practices we use to prepare calves for weaning, transport, and eventually entering a feedlot. This helps them gain better, build immunity, get supplemental minerals, and improve their chances of success when they get to the feedlot.

These fall booster shots pay off with healthier calves, more value, and a reputation of good animal husbandry that we can stand behind.

After all the calves have gone through the chute, we let the steer calves out to pair up with their mamas, and sort them off. We then do the same thing with the heifer calves, and sort them into a different pasture. This prepares us better for shipping day, so we won't have to sort genders, which saves us some shrink on our weights.

I hope you find this behind-the-scenes look interesting, and maybe even learn a thing or two about what goes into raising healthy calves.

These days are long and gritty, but as I said, they are my favorite. They make me even more grateful to live this life and do this work with my family working right along with me. Ty, my 8 year old son, and his horse, Harley, sorted out two pairs all by themselves! Quinn, my 6 year old daughter, learned some real life math by adding each alley full of calves to the total. Trey, my 2 year old son, mostly kept us entertained and almost fell asleep on the loading chute! My cup truly runneth over.

Thanks for following along on our ranching adventures. Enjoy!