Animals on the Ranch

Picture by Claire E. on June 20, 2024

Animals have important roles on a ranch. A ranch is like a farm except farming is growing crops while ranching is tending to livestock. Ranchers do grow crops though. The crops ranchers grow are for the livestock to eat during the winter, which means they grow peas, oats, barley, triticale, corn, grass, sunflowers, and alfalfa.

Ranchers have lots of jobs just like the animals and oversee anything that happens on his or her ranch. Ranchers must move the livestock during the summer so that they don’t overgraze a pasture. Also, all the animals need to be fed and watered every single day so that they are strong enough to do their job the next day.

On our ranch, we have a variety of animals, and they all have some sort of job that keeps everything in balance. So, if they do their job, we can do ours.

Picture by Claire E. on June 20, 2024

This is a 2-year-old female horse or mare. She had a baby, or foal, about a month ago. Her baby is a girl, so it is called a filly. A boy foal is called a colt. It was a big surprise because she is so young and wasn’t supposed to have a baby, but she was with one of our younger studs. Her job is to nurse the baby until she grows strong and when the baby is old enough, we might sell her.

Picture by Claire E. on June 20, 2024

This is a 1-month-old baby horse. She just finished eating and is ready to sleep through the night. Her job is to sleep and get strong so that someday she can become a mother herself.

Picture by Claire E. on June 20, 2024

This chicken is sitting on eggs in a nesting box. Her job is to lay eggs so we can eat them. We have 17 chickens who each lay about one egg per day. We also sell them because we get so many, around 15 eggs a day.

Picture by Claire E. on June 20, 2024

These chickens are standing on the roost getting ready for the night. Their job is to lay eggs for us to eat. They can lay up to 17 eggs a day altogether.

Picture by Claire E. on June 20th, 2024

These are some of the chickens’ eggs. Sometimes if they’re fertilized, their job is to hatch into healthy chicks, but if they’re not fertilized, we eat and sell them.

Picture by Claire E. on June 20, 2024

This is Buckwheat. She is a 2-year-old Jersey milk cow. Good dairy cows always look a bit thin because they are putting most of their calories into making milk instead of putting on fat. Her job is to give us milk, but now she must care for my two bottle calves, so we have not been getting farm fresh milk for a while. A bottle calf is a calf that you must feed with a bottle and milk re-placer because the mother could not care for it.

Picture by Claire E. on June 20, 2024

This is Clay. He is one of my bottle calves. His job is to be a calf and eat as much as he can so he can grow big and strong.

Picture by Claire E. on June 20, 2024

This is Ruby. She is my other bottle calf. Her job is the same as Clay’s and someday she might get the chance to become a mother just like Buckwheat.

Picture by Claire E. on June 20th, 2024

This is Mitts the cat. He is deaf and has seven toes on his front feet. His job is pest control and catching any mice or rats near our ranch.

Picture by Claire E. on June 21, 2024

This is Axle. He is a Great Pyrenees. Sometimes people call him a polar bear; I call him a polar bear dog. His job is to protect the sheep from any danger.

Picture by Claire E. on June 21, 2024

These are sheep. Some of them have babies called lambs. Their job is to produce wool for some of our clothes and fabrics. Sometimes people use them as food, and sometimes they are used as weed control.

Picture by Natalie E. on June 21, 2024, of me holding a lamb.

I hope this photo essay has helped you understand the importance of animals on the ranch.