Dee River Ranch: Summer Intern

Parker is back!

This summer our intern, Parker, is from Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi. We are very fortunate to have Parker here with us for a second internship with our farm. Each week, Parker is required by her professors to submit a report. We will feature her reports on our page so you can follow her experiences on our farm throughout her journey.

We will begin with her third week's report.

Week 3: Adventures on the Ranch

May 23-27

This week was full of adventures on my bush hog. On Monday I took care of the horses like usual. Trudy was healing nicely. There was still a little bit of fluid draining but new, pink flesh was forming around the open hole. She has been such a good girl throughout this whole ordeal; standing patiently while I doctored her as well as eating her medicine. After that I went to bush hog and spent almost two hours trying to get it to start. The battery was dead so I had to charge it using my truck. However, every time I tried to crank the tractor the battery would drain so I had to start all over. Once I got it running I recut around the reservoir because the first cut had been really choppy and it didn’t look pretty. To keep myself from getting bored I let my OCD take over and I trimmed in a straight line along the road. On Tuesday I got tickled as I let the horses out to pasture. Several of them were fighting like siblings over who got to go through the gate first. Once through the gate they began running around the pasture chasing each other. The other horses stood at the gate with me and had their ears up watching the shenanigans. After that I got on my bush hog again. I was piddling along when suddenly a bird flew up in front of me and startled me. My mind went from “Oh cool! A bird!” to “It’s a duck, a female mallard even!” to “Why am I just now startling her?” to “She must be nesting…… BRAKE!” in a split second. I hit the clutch and brake, threw it in reverse, tossed it in park and hopped down. I hoped against hope that I had stopped soon enough or that the tractor tire had missed the nest. It took me a few minutes to find the nest but when I did my heart sunk and tears sprang to my eyes. Broken egg shells covered in yellow yolk lay in the carefully constructed circle of grass. My heart broke a little when I noticed tiny feathers laying inside the broken shells. I said a silent apology to the mother duck wherever she had flown off to and with a heavy heart climbed back on the tractor to continue bush-hogging. Several hours later I noticed a bigger bird circling and following me. I’m used to cow birds or kites flying around eating grasshoppers that I disturb and occasionally I will see some vultures or buzzards but this one’s flight pattern was different. It was bigger than the kites but not quite buzzard size. It landed atop a tree and when I got close I realized it was a hawk. It was the most beautiful, majestic, and regal looking red tailed hawk I have ever seen in my life. It watched over me as I cut and I enjoyed keeping an eye on it. It was content to watch from its perch in the tree. I believe he was waiting for me to disturb some mice or rabbits which I come across quite frequently. Wednesday brought a slight reprieve from my bush hogging task as it was time to work some cattle. I got to the ranch early and quickly fed the horses and swept out the barn so as to be at the cattle pens by 8. As I crested the hill I was met by the comical sight of four white trucks attempting to herd the herd of white Brahman cattle towards the pens to be worked. I joined in the attempt to get the athletic breed of cattle up to the pens. Eventually we did and I took on the task of keeping up with all the paperwork. The Brahman herd is different from the rest of the Angus cross cattle on the ranch. They are on a different breeding schedule so their ages are slightly different. In addition, the heard consists of momma cows, heifers, young bulls, older bulls, and calves. There was some confusion over what age to record for the cattle, who needed to have blood work, and if any of them were to be moved. Eventually everything was sorted out and all the cattle received their necessary vaccinations and dewormers. Once we finished with the Brahmans we worked the first calf heifers. These cattle will have their first calf this coming winter. Two had calved early and their calves were so adorable! Dr. Character normally draws blood from the cow’s tail because the vein is easier to access. However, with the heifers being so jumpy and because the tail vein isn’t quite developed he pulled the blood from the vein in their neck. Once we finished with the two groups, Dr. Character checked on Trudy and said he was very impressed with how well she was healing. I spent the rest of the afternoon on my bush hog. Monday came three days late on Thursday for me. I had been on my bush hog for not even an hour and a thumping noise started up. I shut everything down and went to check it out. A piece of metal had worn out and was hanging down interfering with the path of the blades. I hopped in my truck and went to the shop where I grabbed the appropriate wrench and a can of WD-40. I got the metal detached and continued. I was about to stop for lunch when I saw something brown flipping around the tire. At first I thought it was just a piece of grass the tire had thrown up but then I realize it was a deer antler right as it was thrown up into an arc in the air. I shut down my tractor because I just knew the antler had poked a hole in the tire. I found the antler and headed to the shop to grab the four-way lug nut wrench and a jack. I couldn’t find any of the tools I needed so I went on to lunch. When I got back everyone was out in the hay field with the tools trying to put new tines on the hay rake. I helped with that until it was finished. Then I went back and got the tire off and took it to Macon to be fixed. By the time I got back and got the tire back on it was the end of the day. On Friday I took care of the horses before heading out to bush hog. I finished the last bit of the reservoir that I had been working on and then headed over to the Quad cattle pastures. Around 2:30 I began smelling something like cornbread. I didn’t think too much of it because sometimes some of the plants that I bush hog over have familiar food-like scents. A couple of laps later I saw something black fly near the front of my tractor. I watched to see if it happened again because I thought it might have been a bird or insect. A few seconds later smoke began rolling up from the engine. I shut everything down and hopped off to inspect. A belt that turns the fan had broken. I wasn’t quite sure how to fix the belt and since I couldn’t find anyone available to help I made sure the horses had plenty of water for the weekend and headed on out.

Photos below

Horses ready for breakfast Monday morning