Ask almost any rancher how their summer is going, and all they’ll have time to say is, “Busy.” Moving cows up the mountain, baling hay, packing salt, building fence…the list literally never ends.

Except in the case of my family. I don’t know how we ever got so lucky, but summer is our “slow” season. I say that with some sarcasm, because ranch life is never slow; but it seems to be the time when we have the least to do. Our cows spend their summer out on the desert, and hardly ever have to be moved from one allotment to the next. Although we do raise our own alfalfa and silage corn, we hire local farmers to work, plant and harvest our corn, along with cutting and baling our hay. All we really have to worry about is irrigating everything, and making sure our cows have water, which takes up a good portion of the day.

Since we do have a little bit of free time on our hands, we usually spend time getting a variety of projects done while we can. My father calls this “beautification,” aka, making things look almost-new again. My parents have always taken pride in what they have, and this ranch is no different. We’re constantly spraying weeds, washing buildings, blading the road, raking, or mowing. I know that if ranch life ever fails me, I could easily make it as a landscaper 🙂

Back in June, we gave our ranch a brand new coat of barn red paint. This project is dreaded by all, as it ends up taking 5 full days. But the end result is completely worth it, and we always get compliments on how nice things look.

About a month ago, the guys put in two new water tanks, which we badly needed. One started leaking last winter, but we knew we couldn’t replace it until the weather warmed up, to avoid freezing. Luckily we were able to make a temporary fix that lasted until now!

Stay tuned in the next week or so, because I’ve got an amazing recipe coming! My Mother-in-Law taught me how to make her famous taco salad—it’s too good not to share!

~ Jessie

Jessie has returned to her roots on her family’s commercial black angus cattle ranch in southern Idaho after time away at college and working on behalf of the state’s cattle producers. She’s passionate about agriculture and the western way of life. When she isn’t doing ranch work or writing, Jessie enjoys baking, golfing and drinking coffee. As a newlywed, she’s also turning a little cabin on the ranch into a home.

If you follow us on Facebook, you saw some of us cattlewomen joined the Idaho Beef Council in Boise for the FitOne Expo benefiting St. Lukes last week. We stepped off the ranch and into the city to interact with consumers. It was such a great event and we had fun sharing beef samples with the public. Did you know there are 29 lean cuts of beef that fit into a healthy diet? And lean beef is one of the most flavorful and efficient ways to meet the daily value for essential nutrients such as zinc, iron, protein and B vitamins.

The recipe shared by the Idaho Beef Council is one many of us have used to cook for our own families. It uses an economical cut of beef like the chuck or shoulder roast, and it’s a slow cooker recipe. That makes it easy so you can fix it and forget it. Start it in the morning before work and come home to a great smelling and tasting dinner.

We had so many compliments on the wonderful flavor and tenderness of the dish. From high school football players to small children, parents, grandparents and people of all ages stopped by to grab a sample. The recipe uses simple ingredients people have in their pantries. In addition, there are four additional variations so you can add some other ingredients to give you different flavors. See the complete recipe below.

 Four Way Shredded Beef (A Beef Checkoff Recipe)

• 1 beef Shoulder Roast, Arm Chuck Roast Boneless or Blade Chuck Roast Boneless (2 to 2-1/2 pounds)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (optional)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• Salt and pepper

INSTRUCTIONS FOR FOUR-WAY SLOW COOKER SHREDDED BEEF

Not only do we love eating beef in our own homes, but we enjoy sharing recipes so others can provide nutrient rich beef for their own families. Would love to hear if you try this recipe and how you add other ingredients or spices to make it your own!

September and cooler weather brings changes to our ranch (and many ranches in Idaho). It is the time of the year that we go out to our public Lands grazing range and bring our calves, who were born in February, home to wean from their moms. Our cows and calves spend the summer months out on the range grazing. They are healthy and physically fit as they wander the mountains all summer.

The mornings start early, saddling horses after a warm cup of coffee. We have friends, hired help and range partners that come to ride for the three days it takes to bring our cows and calves to corrals where they can be sorted. Mornings are chilly, but we were fortunate to have days of sunshine.

The riders split up and ride to different areas to bring the cows down off the mountain into our temporary corrals. Riders come back to cow camp for lunch then head out again and ride until late in the day.

On the final day, we gather all the cows and calves in pasture near cow camp, while trucks arrive and the sorting begins.

Cows are sent back to the range and calves are sent home to grass or to feedlots.
The calves are sorted by steers (male) and heifers (female). We also have cows/calves from other ranchers, so cattle or sorted out by brand to go to each owner’s ranch.

Our cows get a break from nursing as they are already pregnant with next year’s calf. Our cows will come home and usually find their own way back to the ranch as the day’s are shorter and colder. Once they are home, we will bring them in and do pregnancy checks on them to verify that they are pregnant.

We source verify and are verified natural producers so our calves get EID (electronic identification tags. They are also vaccinated on arrival to the ranch. They are turned out to pasture before they are sold in the fall. We were blessed this year with late summer rain and lots of grass for the cows to eat on the range.

While the cows are at range, there is continued activity at the ranch during summer months. We grow our own feed, alfalfa and oats for the winter months. This year the late summer rains blessed us with lots of grass on the range for the cows to eat, but delayed our cuttiing and baling of hay. It is important to get hay up so that we have regrowth in the fall when the cows and calves do come home.

Weaning time is always excited for Idaho ranchers as we get to see how the calves have grown and how the cows are doing as mommas. We’re always looking at what we can do to change and improve our cattle herds and the beef we produce for our tables and yours.

~ Lyndella

Lyndella and her husband, Stephen, own and operate Challis Creek Cattle. They are first generations ranchers, who began their dream of owning cattle more than 20 years ago after working in other industries. They run their cow-calf operation on both public and private lands, and are committed to improving the land and the animals in their care.

A friend and I were comparing this year’s fair week and its highs and lows. I was posting the kid’s fair pictures when I realized how many years our family has counted the last week of July as “fair week.” Through the tears of record books to stepped on toes, fair week just blended into the ranch’s schedule. . .like calving, branding, turn-out and gathering.

Fair Week 2011 was probably a highlight of all the fairs since we started this in 2000. We celebrated our oldest daughter’s last year, middle daughter’s sixth year and son’s first year. The kids worked together, laughed together and cried together. They continued traditions and started new ones. These pictures tell the story of why we believe in 4-H, FFA and “fair week.”

~ Julie

Julie and her family own a cow-calf, yearling operation and custom feedlot in southwest Idaho. She and her husband were raised on livestock ranches and their industry roots run deep. Their children have been very active and involved in the ranch and feedlot, and are developing their own herds of quality cattle.

 

Today was the last day of the fair and my last day with Charlie. Charlie was the 55th steer to sell at the sale. He acted better than he did any other day at the fair. I was nervous that Charlie would go crazy because of all of the noises of the auctioneer and the people.

He sold for a really good price to South Hills Land and Farming. With the money I earned, first I have to pay my grandpa for buying Charlie and for the hay he ate. Then I have to pay my parents for the grain that they bought. The rest of the money is for savings for college or a church mission.

That afternoon, when it was getting close to time to put Charlie on the truck, I started feeling sad. Then I started lightly crying and I stayed with Charlie the whole time until he was ready to go. When I was with him, he kept scratching his head on me up and down, up and down. He tore a hole in my shirt, but I didn’t care. After the man said it was

time to put him on the truck, I cried in my mom’s arms for ten minutes. I started crying again that night. Then I had an idea: maybe if I sleep with my shirt with the hole in it, it will make me feel better. So I did and I’m going to do that every night.

But I’m glad that Charlie is going to help feed America beef!

Even though it was really sad to get rid of him, I’m glad I raised a steer for the fair. I learned responsibility and I got to get dirty all the time, which I found out was super fun. I also discovered that I really, really, really like cows and now they’re my first favorite animal.

My seven top favorite things at the fair were:

• Showing a steer (of course).
• Eating the fair food. I liked the donuts and elephant ears best.
• Working in the 4-H food booth.
• Riding my first carnival ride. My favorite was the ferris wheel.
• Looking at all of the other animals
• The entertainment (the monkey show was my favorite).
• Working and playing with friends and making a few new friends.
• Seeing some of my family.

I hope you liked reading about my first fair and that you learned some fair things too. Come to the Twin Falls County Fair! We’ll see you there next year maybe!