Back Valley Ranch

Some of you already know of them, but I would like to introduce our bulls. Without them we wouldn’t be able to do what we do. All of our bulls are new to the ranch as we had a little incident last fall. I came home from town early October to Jerry meeting me at the door saying “We have a problem.” As it turned out, both of our Bulls, Rocky and Rudy had both broken down at the same time. Meaning they were trying to breed but not being successful about it. So here it was October and approximately half of our herd was not bred. Which means the bulls had been broken down for sometime.

We had been researching this breed called Limousin, as they were supposed to mix well with Angus and Hereford breeds. We had found a ranch that was raising natural Limousin in 100 Mile House and we were thinking about giving one a try in the spring. Well the spring turned into a 9pm phone call to the ranch in 100 Mile asking what they were doing tomorrow. We drove over there to look at 5 bulls that they had for sale. When we asked how tame they were the couple said that two of them were even halter broke. We were able to walk between the bulls without being worried for our safety, and not to mention that everyone one of them was perfect. It took us a long time to choose one as they all looked good. I ended up picking a 17 month old one with a massive butt on him. Jerry says I have a attraction to animals with big butts since my horse also has a massive butt on him. But that was my choice. I named him Optimous Prime and we loaded him in the trailer to bring him home. On the trailer ride home Optimous was so relaxed he ended up falling asleep for the duration of the trip.

We got him home and turned him out with the girls. He took one look at all the girls and if bulls could smile he would be grinning from ear to ear. I don’t think he slept much for the first week as there was lots of girls to meet and places to explore.

After a week we discovered that Optimous was looking a little tired as there were still lots of girls to breed. We didn’t want our new prize bull to break down so we phoned the ranch in 100 Mile House again and asked if we could come out again. It was time to recruit Optimous some help. We went out and bought another 16 month old bull which I named Megatron to help Optimous win the battle of the unbred cows. Well they divided, conquered and managed to breed all but 3 of the girls which is amazing stats for 2 young bulls.

So now we get to look forward to our Limousin cross babies in July. This of course means we’ll be having 2 birthing seasons. But 2 is better then half the herd not bred. They now have the winter off and they’re enjoying their time sleeping and eating.

Now that you know about Optimous Prime and Megatron there’s 2 more for you to meet. Before all this stuff happened in October we kept back 2 of our calves to be bulls when they get older. They are both a hybrid breed of bulls. Which means they have a combo of breeds in them like Hereford, Angus and Charolais. First there’s Andre the Giant. He’s our silver bull calf. Born at 100lbs during a cold snap, poor Jerry had to carry this big guy across the field and into the house to stay warm by the fire. Right from the beginning Andre had great manners and loved scratches and giving kisses to everyone.

Then last but not least is my pride and joy and mascot to Back Valley Ranch, Brain. Brain is a blonde bull calf with a bit of white on his face. He was named Brain after the cartoon Pinky and the Brain. We do have a Pinky as well, and like his name he’s not the brightest calf on the planet. He thought his mother was a tree for the first few days and had a hard time getting him away from it to follow his real mother. Brain is smart and right from the beginning we knew there was something special about this boy. He never acted like regular cattle did. He followed us all over the place and was just so laid back, even by our herd standards. You can call him and he’ll come over, tail wagging, begging for butt scratches. Even after coming from 5 months off the mountain range he was still as tame as the day he was born. Both Brain and Andre are proving that we made a right choice in keeping them bulls as they continue to grow and fill out. We look forward to seeing what their babies look like.