Real Ranch Roping

This calf pooped out his butt

 Ranch roping, for most cowboys, means either 1) a competition that involves big, graceful loops, lots of patience, and well trained horses, or 2) literally, any roping done, off a horse, on a ranch.  But not us.  Here at Hanna Bros, ranch roping has an entirely different meaning.  Here it's the ugly child from a stock car race and pro-rodeo union.  

When we have a sick cow, or calf, the best thing to do is get it separated from the herd by walking it slowly to a set of corrals or a trailer.  Most of the time that just won't work and we have to doctor the animal out in the pasture.  It's a 2-person job: the driver and the roper.  The roper digs out the least-worst rope he or she can find from behind the seat of the truck and has to pin himself up against the headboard while the driver goes like hell to catch up to the calf.  When the calf is caught, you have to dally to the steel post welded to the headboard.  In the last Mad Max movie, remember the guy in the mask who was strapped to the front of the truck as they chased the good guys down?  That's how it feels roping off a flatbed.  It requires the balance of a surfer and the precision of a PRCA tie-down roper. 

When all else fails, just put them in a chute

Our calves start hitting the ground in mid-October.  Our thought is that by the time the weather gets really nasty, the calves are old enough to tough out poor conditions.  Generally, it works pretty well.  We'll still get a handful of calves that will get one of two things: scours or pneumonia.  Both can kill a calf if they aren't treated, so we keep a close eye on anything that looks poorly.  With scours, calves get the shits so bad that they dehydrate quickly.  They are generally pretty weak and it's not uncommon to just walk up to one and treat it.  Pneumonia calves are a different story.  They'll stretch their neck out and wheeze and gasp for air, but you take one step out of the truck and they run off.  If you don't treat it early, pneumonia can turn chronic.

Grant and I have been trying to catch a wheezy heifer all week.  She's crafty.  The big problem with pneumonia is that you don't want them to exert too much energy or their condition can get worse.  It's a catch-22 -- usually you have to run them down to give them antibiotics to make them better.  We've tried twice lately and we can't even get within 30 feet of her.  She bobs and weaves and runs in circles that the truck can't follow.  I've thrown the lariat out as far as I could and had the loop land squarely on top of her shoulders, but wasn't long enough to loop over her nose.  A few ranchers have resorted to using an air gun that injects medicine.  It's like the tranquilizer gun you see big game vets use.  I may have to borrow it, or get a longer rope.