A refrain I’ve heard often from temperate climate dwellers is that they wish they lived in a place with seasons. I suppose we often yearn for what we don’t have, as I also dream of the continual warmth of mild days in San Diego. Yet, if you seek seasons, no place better represents what it means to live seasonally than a cattle ranch. The work of a cattle ranch allows the residents to experience the seasons as not the closing of a book but the reading of a chapter – each seamlessly transitioning into the next.
Spring
Spring is the first chapter – the equinox ushers in days of alternating rain and sunshine. Lengthening days and chilly nights are a hallmark of this season in northern climes. Early in the season, in the shoulder of winter before the grass greens, is calving season – another name for the same season. Spring calving is a delicate balance. The wise rancher watches the weather, as a calf is as likely to be born in a snowbank as they are to be born in the sunshine.
Summer
The summer solstice is the year's peak – the book's climax, if you will. To me, I feel this truth, both figuratively and in actuality. As a child born under Cancer, I revel in warm nights and hot days. Summer is growth. Summer is ripening tomatoes, green grass and growing calves. Summer pasture is a saying for a reason. The cattle are on pasture, summer range or the desert. The calves grow, and the cows are early pregnant, flourishing on the best grass of the season.
Fall
Fall, or its other name, autumn, is often a favorite seasoning of the unseasoned. Fall is highlighted by the dramatic change in the trees and the squash harvest. For the rancher, it is a preparatory period – a period of careful planning and thoughtful provision. One prepares for the long, dark nights and the cold. For the northern cattle rancher – it is the end of the cycle – it’s payday. Calves are weaned. Cows are checked. The calves are sold. The hay is stacked.
Winter
The longest nights of the year correlate with this season, and while not longer than any of the others, it feels like the longest of the year. The rancher prepares in the fall for the winter, yet in the winter, he waits. We all wait for the cows to calve and watch as they edge closer to parturition. We flake hay from flatbed pickup trucks on Christmas Day, the truck in four-wheel drive crunching through the icy snow.
Then, as the nights grow shorter and the days grow warmer, we turn the last page of the book to just flip it over and start again – back at the beginning. It’s an apt description of what it feels like to live seasonally on a cattle ranch – a place with seasons.
