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Alberta, Canada | Roundups are one of my favorite things and this is roundup season. I want to share an practice I've tested for a couple years that works for me.
I saw a quote from Buster Welch some time back where he stated that one rider could drive one cow, two riders could drive 2 cows and three riders could drive 200 cows. Having spent 40 years herding cattle and still not having a good rules of thumb for crew size I decided to try and strictly follow Buster's advice. That is if there are more that 2 cows involved there should be 3 or more drovers.
After 2 or 3 years of quite religiously following that rule I have to say that I am a believer. I'm not sure what it is; it might be a simple as 3 drovers can cover 3 points of the compass. Or maybe cows have trouble counting past 2. Whatever the reason, working cattle with a crew of 3 seems to go very smooth with a positive experience for both man and beast.
And I'm not talking about 3 Bud William's out there. I have enlisted some pretty green help with good success. Also we mix horses and atv's or utv's no problem. The important thing is to get 3 hands in the game.
That is my FWIW today and no doubt there will be other good ideas and strategies. And before you solo artists jump on me for wasting manpower let's get clear on the types of work we are doing. I'm talking about corralling cattle or pushing them across or down a road, etc. Something that could result in a wreck. Putting cattle thru a gate from one field to another wouldn't qualify. They would do that themselves as soon as they found it. Best Regards HT
PS Thanks Buster. Hope it rains down there soon. | |
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The Magic of Three (Drovers)
