December 30th 2009
In addition to being a guest ranch and spa, Echo Valley Ranch is also designated as being a cattle ranch with a one hundred head cow/calf permit and a 10,000 acre Crown Land lease attached to the property to serve as open range grazing for the herd. For those that do not know, a one hundred head permit equates to 85 bred cows resulting in 85 cow/calf pairs, ten heifers and five bulls. That adds up to 185 animals if every cow “takes” and you do not lose any of them. This is what we started off with as city slickers back nineteen years ago and we did not have a clue as to how to manage such an operation. We had a real cowboy to help us however, Glen Brady, a true blue Native who knew exactly what to do so all was well.
Four years ago we sold our herd primarily because the restrictions placed on the import of cattle by the USA made it just about impossible to be in the ranching business; it was not so much a matter of the USA putting a ban on the import of Canadian beef (dead or alive), because one cow in Alberta was found to have the mad cow disease, it was because most of the BC cattle were slaughtered/processed in the USA, and Canada not having sufficient capacity to fulfill that function for themselves! I discovered this when my idea of getting all of the local ranchers together and selling good beef directly to our own supermarkets was blown out of the water – there was no place in BC that could process the beef for us!!
Anyhow, we missed having the cattle at our ranch and our guess missed moving them around on the open range so about a year after we sold the herd we decided to change from a cow/calf operation to a steer operation, and to initially only have 20 steers/annum. A cow/calf operation means that in the fall you send the 6 month old calves, that you bred at your ranch, to market; a steer operation means that you buy 6 month +/- calves in the fall and feed them at the ranch during the winter, put them out on the open range for the spring/summer and send them to market the next fall. If you have the opportunity to buy meat produced by these steers, instead of the regular food chain stuff, I recommend that you do so. Our steers are basically organic and live a far happier life than the poor calves auctioned off to the feed lot. A feed lot is just that, a place where cattle are kept and fattened up – contents of the feed are not natural like the open range and because of living in close proximity to each other antibiotics have to be used to keep the penned up cattle from becoming sick.
Oh well, best that some things are not known, I guess, so onward and forward with describing the day we helped with the delivery of twenty calves and two cows to Echo Valley Ranch & Spa 
.
This year we purchased our calves from Bob and Dori Hampton. We normally buy from our neighbor, Charlie Coldwell, but due to an incredible mess up in communications Charlie sent the calves we would normally buy to the auction! All is OK though since we found some more and are excited at the fact that they are a different breed, Black Angus; Charlie’s being Herefords. I took the picture on the way to their ranch since I thought that the hoar frost on this gate looked interesting. By the way, to get to the ranch we needed to drive 33 km on the Jesmond Road, hang a left and about 10 km more on the Kelly Lake Road – all snow covered, of course
It was decided that three trips would be made, two of the trips carrying 8 calves and the other carrying 4 calves and two cows. The reason we include 2 cows is they have a calming effect on the calves. To do this, the calves for EVR have to be separated from the herd along with two cows; then loaded in the truck and taken to a weigh scale so that we know how much to pay, they are sold by the pound. By the time we got to the ranch the first part was done and now it was mainly a matter of getting them into the truck. The picture shows Dori looking at the calves having their last feed of her hay
A system is needed to enable the efficient moving around of cattle, here you can see Bob cutting out the calves not meant for us. There is another gate to the right of this picture that is opened when our calves are spotted, the calves/cows that pass through that gate are in a pen that has a chute connected to it which leads to the truck.
These calves are for the gate on the right – calves destined for EVR
…they can be stubborn!
Up they go onto the truck – as you can see there is a chute to guide them along their way from the holding pen.
Eight calves safely aboard and Bob and Dori make sure that the door is locked securely behind them
Now comes the time to weigh the 8 calves. To do this the truck has to be backed up to the weigh scale shack and the calves ushered in to stand on a platform. When the calves are in the shack the doors are closed behind them – from the evidence on the floor it scares the poop out of them
Before moving in the calves, Bob balances the scale
….now the calves are ushered in
The first 8 calves weigh in at 4,664 lbs!
Now to get the calves out of the weighing shack and back onto the truck
They are all in …… looks easy, eh? ……so does everything when handled by a real professional!
But, wait a minute, looks like one almost got away! – well, not really, it had no where to go and was quickly put back in the truck with the rest of them
Off down the Kelly Lake Road we go heading for Echo Valley Ranch
This guy slowed us down some as he transported some heavy equipment along the Jesmond Road to be used for taking out the trees that were felled to create a fire break during the fire of 2009 in the Edge Hills and Marble Ranch Mountains.
Almost there, hang a right at the sign and drive alongside the snow covered runway to the ranch gate and go straight in.
Yep, you’ve got it – we have finally arrived at EVR!
Dori is a VERY GOOD driver and makes short work of backing the trailer to the coral gate where the calves will be unloaded
Here is Glen busily forking hay from off a round bale and over the fence.
…..and out of the truck come the calves for their new home
….this is just the first batch of 8, so far so good
Glen is still busily forking hay over the fence. There is a hay feeder in this coral which will soon have two 1500 lb round bales put into it – this makes the feeding a LOT easier
…..and off down the road we go for the next batch of 8 calves. Glen and I went with Bob and Dori in our own vehicle to go through the process one more time.
OK, back at the weigh scales. The weigh scale shack is the other side of the gate, the gate will be opened and Dori will back the trailer through the gate and up against the shack door so that the calves can be transfered into it. Dori is an incredibly good driver!!
….nicely done, again!!
Dori is very happy about the weight of the second batch of 8 calves – 4,900 lbs!
Another successful weigh in and ready to head off once again to EVR
………that didn’t take long, we are back at EVR already
8 more unloaded………
……..and away Bob and Dori go once again, this time to pick up two cows and four calves. We decided not to make this last trip with them, if we were needed and could have made ourselves usefull we would have gone but the fact of the matter is that Bob and Dori can do what needs to be done by themselves, and I had taken enough photo’s - too many, 197 in all .
When Bob and Dori came back with the last load we settled up with them, the market price for Black Angus calves right now being $1.00/lb, transportation for the three trips cost $450, the two cows cost $1,600 for both of them – and guess what, they will both have calves of their own next April – yeah!
PS The two cows, that is
Related posts:
- Never a dull moment!
- Drive back from Vancouver to Echo Valley Ranch & Spa
- Echo Valley Opens Again For 2012 Season
- Cattle roundup
- Christmas at Echo Valley Ranch & Spa
Tags: "Echo Valley Ranch", black angus, calves, Echo Valley Ranch & Spa
Interesting blog and interesting photos!