Tina and I were married Saturday, August 18th in a small family and a few close friends ceremony in Bolivar, Missouri. We enjoyed the reception with pizza and wedding cake after the ceremony and honeymooned with a float trip with kids, grandkids and friends on the Sac River on Sunday the 19th.

A man owned a small ranch in New Mexico. The New Mexico Wage & Hour Dept. claimed he was not paying proper wages to his help and sent an agent out to interview him.

“I need a list of your employees and how much you pay them,” demanded the agent.

“Well,” replied the rancher, “There’s my ranch hand who’s been with me for 3 years. I pay him $600 a week plus free room and board. The cook has been here for 18 months, and I pay her $500 per week plus free room and board. Then there’s the half-wit who works about 18 hours every day and does about 90% of all the work around here. He makes about $10 per week, pays his own room and board, and I buy him a bottle of bourbon every Saturday night.”

“That’s the guy I want to talk to, the half-wit,” says the agent.

“That would be me,” replied the rancher.

Last evening Tina and I sorted 9 head out to sell from our 37 head herd. We brought them all up from the pasture into the 1/2 acre barn lot, then thought about how to run the sort.

Photo above taken facing east; we brought the cattle into the barn lot from the left gate.

We decided to put the “for sure keepers” out the left gate above, and the “for sure sellers” out the right gate.

Here’s the barn lot standing between the two gates looking west.

It took a couple of animals before we got the hang of it nice and smooth, but by the end we had it working perfectly. I stood near one gate, and Tina stood near the other. The cows were standing by the barn, but slowly moved (on their own) back toward us. As they came, usually 2 or 3 at a time, we evaluated which gate each should go through and, once we made the decision and were clear in our own minds where each needed to go, it was almost like they read our minds and went to the right gate. I guess it was more than just our thoughts, we were moving in the right positions too, but there was that one cow where I just pointed to the right gate and she went through. Go figure!

This morning we brought the 9 up from the holding pasture into the corral. I sorted off the 3 cows to put in the front of the stock trailer and loaded them easily. I sorted the next 4 off and loaded them into the back. It looked like we had room for one more, so I sorted off another one and she stepped easily into the spot the others left for her, and we shut the back gate.

I went to bring the leftover calf (who didn’t fit on the trailer) out of the corral, and Tina said, “listen.” I stopped and listened, and there wasn’t a sound. The 8 cattle in the trailer were standing totally still. There was no banging for position, no pushing and butting, no sound whatsoever. That’s the way animals need to load and act.