Do you ever give much thought to where your weaner steers and heifers go when you load’em on the truck or take’m to the sale?

R.C. is an animal lover. Maybe not the kind of animal lover that the term has come to mean in this era, but the kind that requires a greater commitment.

Now and then I get to thinkin’ I should quit this feedlot job.

Astrology is one of those wonderful pseudo-sciences like naturopathy or cattle futures that anybody with an imagination can rapidly become an expert in. I have taken it upon myself to devise my own astrological symbols. If there is some question which sign you were born under, just ask a fri…

I’ve got a mule deer hangin’ on my wall from northern New Mexico so I could relate to Rafael’s story.

I try not to make this column too educational but sometimes there is a need that can’t be ignored. When ranchers and cowmen work their cowherd, they are often under pressure to cull cows that they have developed a peculiar fondness for. Their excuses for keepin’ the ol’ darlin’ can be pretty…

When you take a seat in the waiting room of a veterinary clinic, a feedlot office or an animal health store, you occasionally notice a body sitting there who looks out of place. They are often dressed in a more formal attire than most clientele. They may be doing their times (two times two i…

1. If the new boss’s hat isn’t sweat stained, you can pretty much figger whose will be.

When I hear a truck pull up in front of the house and the pandemonium of dogs barkin’ would wake a hibernating mastodon, I relax. It’s only my neighbor, D.K., come to borrow something of his back.

Corn country landscape — painted late summer — high clouds, heavy with moisture waiting for afternoon to thicken and darken and start raising Cain.

Some might wonder why prehistoric cave drawings weren’t more detailed. Surely there were artists capable of rendering intricate representations of the circulatory system of aurochs or the dentition of a Saber Tooth Tiger drawn to scale.

“Mama, when’s Daddy comin’ home? Is it time to worry yet?”

A good cowboy will go beyond the call of duty and even put himself in harm’s way to help a suffering beast.

If it were possible to clone human beings from history, what would they be doing today?

Mother gave me a small box of old pocket watches and a book entitled “A Practical Course in Horology.” It was a Christmas gift. A family heirloom, of sorts.

Animal Bonding

The big boy land developers hired them a worn out hack

It was every fairboard’s nightmare when the lightning hit the stage.

I wanna tell y’all a true story that happened to a friend of mine. Big Jim was judgin’ the rodeo at Burlington last year. They call him Big Jim ‘cause he’s big as a round bale and twice as tough. But he don’t move quite as fast as he did in his ol’ bronc ridin’ days.

“Doctor, I’m here because I’m a . . . I’m a . . . “

I grew up in a county that was 65% Spanish-speaking. The biggest distinction between races was not color, it was Catholics and Baptists. My first experience with prejudice was the summer I spent on a job in Kansas City in 1978, the year after the city burned itself down.

When it’s springtime in the Rockies

“Where were you born?” The reporter asked one of my Colorado cowboy friends.

For those of you who forgot how easy it was to get started in farming let me tell you about my friend Con. Many years ago, he bought a farm in the wilds of Minnesota. The feller that sold him the farm had his farm sale the day Con arrived to take possession of the land.

“It’s for you,” his darlin’ told him as he lay back in the chair

A while back I was asked who has had the greatest influence on my life. I hadn’t ever given it much thought, like most folks, I guess. After considerin’ for a while, I came up with five people that I could say actually affected the direction of my thinkin’. My dad, Doc Brimhall, John Basabe,…

“Have I got a deal for you! Got this horse on a trade.

Imagine you were a livestock man in medieval England a thousand years ago. It’s early spring. Snow on the ground, mud in the cow lot. You walk the small pasture where the heavy heifers are kept. It’s hard to see much with just the moonlight. But you spot one that’s down in a swale. She’s on …

He’s the tumbleweed chef and rides with the wagon

This is a quiz to determine your calving sanity (or help you pass time in the calving barn). Match the columns.

“A fine lookin’ horse you’ve got there (if yer into modern art)

Dr. Fosse, once of Pretori, told me about Martha and Arthur, two star crossed rare white rhinos. In a governmental gesture of goodwill, South Africa agreed to ship Arthur to Tanzania to mate with Martha. Brilliant veterinarians, competent game management officials, long winded reproductive s…

“As long as you’ve got good elimination, you’ve got it made.” Uncle Leonard

Lee Trevino has a street named after him in El Paso. Abraham Lincoln has a town named after him in Nebraska. Monty Montana has his namesake state and I’ve even got some hills named in my honor in South Dakota. But there is one feller who left his mark all over these United States. He’s got m…

It is the best of times.

1. New baler twine to tie up last year’s five-buckle overshoes.

He was the last burro left in the dusty corral.

Embarrassing moments. Nobody likes to talk about them. Oh, they’ll talk about slipping on the ice on their first date or getting bucked off a gentle horse. Other folks empathize and usually they laugh. But it makes people uneasy when it’s really embarrassing. They might titter nervously but …

Grandpa Tommy’s dad used to say “A cowful is a substantial quantity.” According to my research, the rumen on a mature cow can hold up to 300 pounds. And by anybody’s standards that is quite a bit.

Do you believe in ghosts? How ‘bout angels? Miracles? Taro cards? I grew up believin’ in Heaven and all its assorted angelic inhabitants and their counterparts in the singed black hats. Reincarnation wasn’t taught in Sunday School but we were encouraged to believe that souls existed. So, wit…

Yeah, he wished he was a cowboy but just at times like this

I’m takin’ you back to the summer of 2003. Out of the blue I got a call from Patrick Gottsch, a member of the well-known Nebraska ag family. He told me he was building a TV channel dedicated solely to agriculture and the rural community. I asked if he had any programs lined up? He said, “Yes…

How do you explain Thanksgiving to a 3-year-old?

In hunting camp, an outfitter reached down and stirred the fire.

They stood in the back of the room lookin’ like two Las Vegas Raiders linebackers at a preppie quiche-tasting party. They had on unblocked hats with flat brims, and each man wore a neck scarf and new Wrangler’s. Steve ambled over and asked where they were from. “Nevada,” they said, “We ranch.”

Ol’ Wayne was real particular about his steers. He figgered if he spent his hard-earned pennies tryin’ to get a few extra pounds, he dang sure wasn’t gonna sweat it off ‘em durin’ the gather.

He rose in the class, hand over his heart

I was sittin’ in the back row of a beautiful little church in a mountain town in the Rockies. I was there for the wedding of the daughter of good friends.

It struck in late October like a plague of mustard gas.

Mr. Moses remarked the other day he’d received a catalog in the mail from a western clothing outfit. He wasn’t sure who the outfit catered to, but the name ‘Long Island’ seemed to stick in his mind.

Catching avocado rustlers is sort of a cross between the Covid virus, wildfires, exchange students bearing addictive goodies and coon hunting.

When the crew came toward the cookhouse Hazel shut and locked the door.

I played in a celebrity golf tournament in Oklahoma City a while back. Now, I’ve been to a few celebrity team ropings, a couple celebrity stock dog trials, a million brandings and one celebrity rock pickin’ — but this was my first celebrity golf tournament. Generous people paid a lot of mone…

The other day on the internet, I saw an old commercial of a semi truck that had these words painted on the side: JONNY KAT, KITTY LITTER. For some reason that had a profound affect on me. Imagine a semi full of kitty litter! 40,000 pounds of scented, colored, and packaged cat box contents!

Another white horse just rode by. I guess I saw him comin’