Cave Valley Ranch is an all-natural commercial Black Angus cattle operation. Cows are commercial Black Angus and black baldies. Bulls are purchased as two year olds from Montana and are registered Black Angus. Spring calving begins March 1st. and is always very exciting as new babies are born but can also be very trying because of unpredictable weather in Cave Valley. The main ranch and calving grounds sit at 6400 feet in elevation. and winter blizzards are not uncommon during calving season. Wet newborn calves must be found and brought inside to dry and warm up because they can get hypothermia in a matter of minutes after birth in wet freezing temperatures and can freeze to death. The herd is checked several times a day and at night especially when there is bad weather to take care of calves and assist mothers as necessary. We turn the bulls in with the open (non-pregnant cows) on June 1st  every year and leave the bulls with the cows for 90 days. This means we are usually done with calving by the end of May but we always seem to get a few late calves. After calving; the herd is moved to the seedings and "bull-up pasture" by June 1st where the bulls are turned in with them. We intentionally keep the cows and bulls in a confined pasture for at least 30 days in order to insure maximum conception. We average conception rates in the 90 percentile most years. The month of June is also branding time in Cave Valley and is a very busy time and also allot of work. The herd is penned and ropers heal the calves and bring them to the ground crew and branding iron. The calves are branded, ear tagged and marked and vaccinated. 

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By July the cows are dispersed across the entire ranch and grazed at elevations from 6500' up to 9500' and herd checked and moved several times a week so that they are not allowed to loaf or overgraze  any area of the ranch. This keeps the cowboy continually on the move. When he’s not riding and checking and moving cows he is checking and pumping water as necessary and fixing fences continually. In July the calves are videoed on the range and then marketed on the Internet where they are pre sold via video marketing to the highest bidder.

 

Gathering begins in October and usually takes at least 2 weeks to complete. Cows and calves are brought home and run through the ranches sorting pens. Calves are weaned from their mothers and then steers are separated from heifers and both are vaccinated with booster shots and wormed. The calves are kept for 30-45 days and pastured and then fed grass hay to insure the absolute best health and to prepare them for the buyers. Cows are also vaccinated and wormed but are also preg checked. Open non-pregnant cows are culled as well as old and inferior cows. This is done to insure the overall health and quality of the herd. Calves are shipped in November with the exception of the replacement heifers that are kept.

 

The pregnant cows and heifers are moved to the fall and winter pasture where there is plentiful grass the prepare them for winter. During the winter months the cows are supplemented with hay as well as minerals to keep them in the best health possible as the babies inside of them continue to grow until March 1st when the entire cycle of life begins once again.