By Shannon Lukens.
Cattle trucks are being seen throughout Northwest Colorado.
“We are shipping our steers for market.”
That’s Carla VanValkenburg who is a partner with VanValkenburg LLC Cattle Company in Jackson County. Steamboat Radio/KRAI News was invited to their ranch to see the process.
“This is our paycheck for the year. This is where we get our funding for the whole year, to run this ranch.”
Video of the VanValkenburg Cattle Company on shipping day; Oct. 30, 2022.
Eight-five calves about four to five months old were weighed and loaded in a truck at the VanValkenburg’s ranch and sent to Nebraska. Here is Adam VanValkenburg.
“So the process is they’ll go to the feed lot and they’ll be fed throughout the winter. Then they’ll go on to summer pasture this summer. Then after that they will go to what they call ‘finish-fed’ where they’ll get fattened up one more time. And then after that they’ll go to slaughter.”
Adam VanValkenburg is also president of the North Park Stockgrowers Association which has been dealing with a wolf pack that has attacked and killed some cows and dogs in the county.
Brian Anderson is a Brand Inspector for the State of Colorado. His job is to make sure each calf is owned by the VanValkenburg family and none of the neighbor’s cows may have wandered over to mix with the herd. Anderson helped out with the weighing and shipping. The average weight was 551 pounds and the rancher gets paid per pound.
“Cattle that are comfortable in a pasture tend to gain more weight than cattle that are moved around or harassed by wildlife. Your gain wouldn’t be as good. On calves, it’s even more important because of sickness. Once a calf gets stressed, then their chances of getting sick or having some sort of respiratory problem is higher than if they were just left alone.”
Those 85 calves are now in Nebraska. On Monday, Nov. 7, the VanValkenburgs will check how many of their cows are pregnant with new calves to be born in the spring. Then they’ll do the process all over again.
