Unless you live in the desert, I imagine that you experience fighting the mud at some point in the year. I’ve never lived in the desert…maybe you get mud too?
In Northern California, we have two seasons…Mud and Dust.
Frank Ward
Seasons
Growing up in Colorado, Frank was able to see actual seasons including a true Fall with all of the leaves turning to vibrant colors and then fading into the snow-swept mountainsides of Winter. At 8500 ft elevation, it stayed frozen for a good portion of the year. Those of you who are frozen right now, consider yourselves lucky…for now.
Yep, We Did That
Because I love to share funny stories, here’s the best one I remember in the mud…
We were in high school. Darrell Hansen, Julia Burnett and I headed to a jackpot in Plymouth, CA. It was a really wet year and we arrived at the show after taking what seemed like the longest possible route…other than if we’d gone through LA to get there.
Thus, it was quite late. After unloading the cattle and gear, we went to drop the trailer in the parking lot. The lot was not well lit, as is normal for fairgrounds in the middle of nowhere. We pulled in the spot and the tires started spinning on Julia’s dually.
Do you know how long it takes to bury a dually in the mud? Well as it turns out, not long at all. It’s quite simple…get stuck…lay on the gas pedal…spin those tires.
You might be thinking, “Oh they got their truck stuck.”
When I say we buried it, I mean we buried it… to the doors. Yes, that is possible. Nope, I didn’t know this little bit of info before that night.
While Darrell and I made the cattle beds, Julia tried to get AAA to come and pull us out. The lady on the other end told her that they only take care of roadside emergencies.
To which, Julia replied, “What does this sound like to you? This IS an emergency!” Apparently, we weren’t technically “roadside.” We were closer to ringside. Like all of our stories, we did get it figured out…nonetheless, it took a while.
Fighting the Mud
People at virtually every place we went to in Iowa this Fall were fighting the mud. It’s so frustrating when you spend hours to get cattle clean for people to look at and they are dirty again in under 20 seconds of being turned out.
Conversely, our Fall was long, with little to no precipitation and it was dusty and hot right up to Thanksgiving. Then the rain turned on and the dust turned to mud.
Now is the time for fighting the mud in Northern California. It’s pretty challenging to do things right with mud. It rips hair out and burns their hide, and if your cattle have white on them, they stain in the mud.
Even if you aren’t trying to take care of their hair to show, mud is hard on cattle. It affects their health and weight gain. Feedlots will always have piles for cattle to lie down on to get out of the mud. Cattle absolutely need a dry spot to lay.
Getting Ahead of It
Honestly, it isn’t that we don’t know how to avoid the really bad mud. More often, we get busy with all of the things that need to be done and we let it get ahead of us. Once the mud sets in, it’s pretty tough to catch up.
Over the years, we’ve brought in sand, wood chips and rock. Many of our friends use Almond shell since that is in high supply in our area. These things all work to a certain extent.
However, like anything, it needs to be maintained. Cattle punch all of these materials into the mud over time. More importantly, having too many cattle in a pen or run will destroy everything you’ve worked to build.
Rinse or Wash the Mud Off
In an effort to keep the mud from ruining leg hair, the boys rinse the mud off every morning when they bring the cattle into the barn. We try to coat the hair in some kind of oil in an effort to keep any mud from sticking to the hair.
Where they have white…in a perfect world, they get washed with bluing shampoo to avoid stains.
Like any family, we have one child who is far more diligent than the other on this topic.
Stains in cattle are much easier to deal with daily than waiting and trying to remove stains later.
What’s worse than just mud is a mixture of mud and manure. Last weekend, we had one calf left to sell and he was in a pretty muddy pen. It took me a few hours to get him really clean.
Oh, and this calf is all white.
Luckily, we have hot water on the wash rack to help loosen the debris. Even though the gal who bought him was well aware of the situation, I felt so bad that she was taking him home with stains already.
Adobe Bricks
While we’re on the topic of getting cattle clean, another thing that is incredibly hard to get out of them is manure balls in their hair. They typically collect on their tails and rear ends when their manure gets loose from illness or more often change in feed or stress.
They will get manure balls on their stifles, bellies, and legs if they don’t have a clean place to lay down. Removing them requires water and patience. The worst thing you can do for hair is to scrub your calf out with a wash brush or curry…unless you don’t care if you have much hair left.
You are far better off to soften them with water and wait. You can crush them with your hands or even plyers if you are easy about it and don’t pull.
By the way, I have a theory on these miserable little manure balls. They are basically made of the same material as adobe bricks. As you may know, many of the Missions in California, as well as other buildings in the Southwest were made out of adobe bricks. It’s fairly tough stuff!
Do you have any great tricks to avoid problems with mud? I’m sure the Stock Show Stories readers would love to hear about it! Please share!
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