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Weed Training

I have honorarily earned the title of “Teacher” this summer.  My so-called students are a herd of 50 yearling heifers and I am trying to get them to eat Canada Thistle. 

 
   

The teaching started by placing short black barrels in their pasture, approximately one for every three cows to create competition.  These barrels are supposed to pique their curiosity because they cannot see what is in them.  So what does a curious heifer do?  They stick their heads in the barrels. 

Once they know there is something tasty in the barrels they are more likely to keep coming back.  For five days each morning I fed them a different tasty treat in these barrels to condition them to the fact that unfamiliar foods can be good.  On the sixth day I mixed thistles in with a food that they have previously tried and liked.  Initially the heifers crowded around the barrels to see what was new, and when they stuck their heads in and encountered a pokey food they did not seem so excited.  Gradually they stuck their heads back in and started gobbling up the feed that was mixed with the thistles.  This was good because even if they weren’t trying to eat the thistles they were bound to put them in their mouths at some point if they were licking around the barrels.  Also, the other cows that couldn’t fit their heads in the barrels got curious and pushed their way to the barrels so they could try too.  Eventually I caught a few cows with thistles hanging out of their mouths. 

Luke went back to check out the barrels later in the afternoon and they were all licked clean!  Because of this great success we decided to give them only thistles the seventh day instead of mixing them with feed again.  Once again, when the cows felt something pokey they weren’t so excited.  Very few were eating them when I left to go do other chores.  But Luke checked the barrels again that evening and saw that they were pretty well cleaned up, so we called it a success.

The same group of heifers were moved to a new pasture that had a high buckbrush, or western snowberry, population so Luke decided we needed to try to get them to eat that as well since the training was so fresh in their minds. 

On the first day I took the barrels out and put corn in them just to get them used to the idea of coming to the barrels again.  However, they didn’t come to greet me when I took the barrels in, so I was a little worried they wouldn’t find them.  But the next day the corn had been partially eaten so I put their first serving of buckbrush in the barrels with a little bit of some different feed.  Once again they didn’t come see what was in the barrels right away, so after a little while I left.  The second say I saw that there was most of the buckbrush cleaned up, but some was still in the barrels.  So I emptied the barrels and put more weeds and a little less feed in them.  That day I cut weeds right next to the barrels in the pasture they were in.  I figured it might get them to come and see what was in the barrels. 

The last morning the weeds were mostly cleaned up again so I decided to cut more weeds near the barrels because the cows weren’t anywhere nearby.  Turns out that partway through cutting I looked up to see the whole herd moving my way.  Most of them checked out the barrels, and when they realized nothing was in them they came and looked at me while I was cutting.  They walked right into the patch of buckbrush that I was cutting in and started eating the grass that was growing between the shrubs.  I was excited the day before when I saw that there had been some trampling in the buckbrush patches, but then I realized that they were probably eating the grass and not the buckbrush.  Eventually they lost interest in me and the herd moved on to a greener part of the pasture.  When I finished I put the weeds in the barrels and hoped they would come back.  Turns out they did come back, but more was left in the barrels than we would have liked to see.  Maybe the buckbrush was not a success. 

A few weeks ago we moved the heifers into a new pasture that has plenty of maturing thistles in it, but they are not eating them.  It might be because it has been a while since the training, or maybe because these thistles are older and bigger than the ones I harvested for them when I trained them.  So the barrels have been moved yet again to see if we can reintroduce them to the pokey Canadian Thistle.

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A New Way to Fight Weeds

One really cool aspect of the ranch is that they are not afraid to try new things when it comes to getting rid of pesky weeds. One thing we’ve been working on is training some heifers to eat weeds out in the pasture. It starts by feeding them a food they really know and like in small black barrels. There is one barrel for every three cows which makes them curious and creates competition between them to see what’s in the barrel. Every morning we put a new treat in the barrels. We use something different every day so they get used to eating different things that are good for them. After about five days we mix weeds in with one of the treats they have had before. They are more likely to try the weeds if there is a familiar smell or taste with them. The next day we will only put the weeds in the barrels. By this time they should be used to trying different foods and should be willing to eat the weeds. The goal is that they will realize the weeds are a good source of food and will eat them in the pastures. One of the weeds we are trying to get them to eat is Canada Thistle.

One other thing the ranch has done to fight weeds is by using “biological control”. This means introducing animals or insects that naturally eat a weed as part of their diet to an area that has a lot of the weed you want to get rid of. The weed of concern here is Leafy Spurge, so they have introduced flea beetles to eat it. These beetles are seen for a few weeks in the summer when they come out of the ground to mate. Then they lay their eggs, and when the eggs hatch the larvae eat the roots of the leafy spurge. They are seeing results on the ranch, which is great. This means that chemicals are used to control the leafy spurge which cuts costs and is better for the environment.

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It’s been a quiet week here at Lake Wobegon…

…well, not really, but we've been able to slow down from "warp speed" to "just breaking the sound barrier". 

Calving is about 85% done.  The bonepile is a bit larger this year than normal.  We had a rather miserable April as most of the reigon did.  Eighteen inches of snow and most days 20 degrees below normal made for a long month.  It took its toll on the newborn calves.  I attributed nine deaths to the weather, either directly or indirectly.  As discouraging as that is for me, I know of others who sustained larger losses.  Now that the weather has warmed up and the grass has started to turn green, the cold, sunless days of April seem like a distant memory.  I think cattlemen who calve in the later winter/early spring must all have short memories, because by the time June rolls around, we still turn the bulls out the same time as last year.  However, the thought of having most of the calves in May next year is making me rethink our turn-out dates.

We're excited about Kelly, our summer intern, arriving in the next couple weeks.  This is the first year we will have an "official" intern.  It will be a learning process for all of us.  Our hired help in the past was mostly just to build fence, make hay, move cows, and mow the lawn.  We're planning to involve her in more of the range management decisions and implementation, as well as have her assist in developing our new Ranch Tour venture.  I'm planning to have her contribute to the website, so look for her tagline in the coming months.

Speaking of the Ranch Tour, it's starting to take shape.  Dad has been busy in the shop building a buggy to haul people around in.  Mom has been coming up with interesting ways to show visitors the prairie ecosystem.  And I have made a web page for it.  Similar to the internship, it will be a learning process for us to find out what people are actually interested in.  Other ranches have done similar ventures, so we are starting with some of the ideas we've heard from them.  It sure has potential to be a really fun part of our ranch.

You also might have noticed some changes to the website's theme as well.  I'm trying to better organize the content to make it easier to find the information that you're looking for.  When I think of the diversity that our ranch contains, it can be overwhelming to come up with a simple way to tell you about it on this site.  My plan is to create content that fits in two broad categories – Ranch Operations and Visitor Information.  Ranch Operations will provide information on what we do with the land and livestock.  Whether you are a fellow cattleman or someone who recently found out milk doesn't just come from the grocery store, there should be something for you there.  The Visitor Information category will have information about hunting, tours, and accommodations at the ranch.  If there is something you would like to see added to the website, please email me at rockhillsranch@gmail.com.

An aside – The title (and closing line) of this blog post comes from "News from Lake Wobegon," a segment of Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion on public radio.  It is made-up news from a made-up town in Minnesota, but it seems like he could also say "the names are made up, but the stories are real."  It is to small town life what I imagine "The Office" TV show is to working in a cubicle.

Speaking of small towns, Naomi had a real small-town experience recently.  She has been working a few days this spring doing preschool screening in the area.  She was working in Bowdle, population 502, a couple weeks ago.  The janitor came in to the room where the screening was taking place and aksed Naomi if she drove a gray van.  Obviously it didn't belong to one of the students or school faculty, because he would have recognized it and known whose it was.  Well, it was our van, and it had a flat tire.  The janitor asked Naomi if she would like it fixed; she said yes.  The janitor said he would take care of it if she gave him the keys.  He called up ARC, the local repair shop, who came up to the school, drove the van back to the shop, fixed the tire, and delivered it back to the school.  As the ladies chatted about the tire getting fixed, those who were from Bowdle all said something like "oh, ARC is a good place to get it fixed."  "They do a good job."  "They're such nice guys."  After the screening was done, the janitor still had not returned the van keys.  They were in the van, of course – where else would they be?  And the bill…well, there wasn't one.  Naomi stopped at the furniture store after work to buy mattresses for the kids.  She asked where ARC was.  The store owner walked her outside and pointed her in the right directionon, commenting that "those are some good guys at ARC."  She stopped there on her way out of town and paid the $15 fee for fixing the flat.

That's all the news from Lake Wobegon Swan Creek, where all the women are strong, all the men are, um, well…..and all the children are above average (especially if you ask their Grandpa.)