I don’t go feeding with Ladd very often, because we both have busy mornings to juggle. But there was something about this morning. It was 10 degrees, icy, snowy, bleak, and I didn’t want him to face it alone.
Also, I wanted to take photos. Ha.
Ladd does this every morning when the weather is this desperate. The cattle do much better in the cold, cold weather when they have their morning fill of hay and feed.
I do better when I have my morning feed, too, so I can totally understand!
It’s always interesting to see the difference in the way the cattle act toward humans this time of year. Most of the time, they are skittish and jumpy, and run away when a human is around. This morning, I got out of the truck with my camera and walked all around them and they couldn’t be bothered to care. They just kind of looked at me, not like I was a fly that needed to be flicked off of their shoulder, but like I was a redheaded woman holding a camera who needed to tell her husband to hurry up and get the feed on the ground.
On mornings—and moments—like this, I feel so much admiration and gratitude for Ladd, his brother Tim, and all the cowboys—and frankly, for all who work in agriculture during weather extremes. There simply is no snow day in farming or ranching, when the animals have to be cared for. There’s no sitting by the fire and sipping hot chocolate—at least not until the work is done. The dedication is unwavering, and another thing I’ve observed through the years is that there isn’t really an uptick in complaints during times like these. They just go about their daily work of feeding, often riding in a feed truck by themselves for hours on end, and they don’t stop until the last animal is accounted for and fed.
They’re all kinda my heroes.
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