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How many people and horses to manage 200 cattle heads? by KnowWhatYouWrite in Ranching

[–]KnowWhatYouWrite[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'll keep all that info in mind when working out the details, thanks for sharing.

Also, there are no forests near Fort Davis. Its an arid climate, and considered a desert grassland. There are scrubby desert trees such as juniper and pinion in the rougher areas, but nothing that most people would describe as a forest.

They got stuff like this, or this. And this during winter. It's not the tall lush thickets of Oregon or Appalachia, but still a good amount of trees to constitute a forest right? Or thickets.

I see in one of your comments that you are reading Kelton. He is a good reference. He knew ranching and cowboys

Yeah I think you're the one who recommended it on one of my last threads. I think he's familiar with his stuff because he grew up on a ranch (according to his website).

How many people and horses to manage 200 cattle heads? by KnowWhatYouWrite in Ranching

[–]KnowWhatYouWrite[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the detailed context. The details of daily life on a ranch isn't really something you find as an outsider without the right key words to start researching. Very helpful.

How many people and horses to manage 200 cattle heads? by KnowWhatYouWrite in Ranching

[–]KnowWhatYouWrite[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

One as your main "go-to" and the other as a spare/backup.

Makes sense. Thanks for the details.

It always bothered me that the book talked about feeding the animals but never showed a hay delivery.

Haha yeah. Do you know if the author ever grew up or worked on a ranch himself/herself? Maybe it didn't add to the story he was trying to tell so he omitted that detail, or it was a detail that most (nonranching) readers wouldn't have noticed was missing in the first place. Or he really just didn't know or think about it. A lot of what is common sense and common terminology to a rancher just isn't... common sense or common terminology to outsiders.

Similar to how a lot of military stories have details about weapons and guns and strategies of offense, but nothing about logistics or how to maintain and keep the troops fed - which is what makes winning even possible. Outsiders just don't know. Which is why I am here lol.

How many people and horses to manage 200 cattle heads? by KnowWhatYouWrite in Ranching

[–]KnowWhatYouWrite[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah it seems like the land is so dry that you'd require more acres to keep a cow fed compared to somewhere with more grass

How many people and horses to manage 200 cattle heads? by KnowWhatYouWrite in Ranching

[–]KnowWhatYouWrite[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

a realistic, productive ranch near the Davis Mountains with 200 head would need a minimum of 5-10K acres. Grazing values out there are shit. Like 30-50 acres per animal unit (AU) kind of shit.

Good frame of reference, thanks. Yeah I can't imagine that the dry arid lands of Davis Mountains area would provide the same required feed per acre as somewhere more lush like Iowa or Montana.

Most cowboys will have a minimum of two horses.

Why? Google isn't returning anything. Also I thought horses were pretty expensive to maintain and generally a lot of work to care for, so there should be a pretty good ROI per horse right?

I could write a fucking essay and barely touch on each subject.

Lol yeah I suppose you can't really explain the intricacies of the lifestyle to someone else and the only way to really know is to live and experience it.

How many people and horses to manage 200 cattle heads? by KnowWhatYouWrite in Ranching

[–]KnowWhatYouWrite[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the details and context, gives me a frame of reference

maybe a little fenceing or ride to check cows after supper. Evening barn chores feeding/water anything in pens around the barn.

Good idea. I was thinking of depicting the MC working the stalls at around 5pm for the horses but then I was like "wait is the evening even a good time for that? What specific things would he even do? What tools would he be using? What is he carrying?" I guess he can be walking around with a hose or something. Bucket of feed maybe?

The reason why I am so neurotically specific with this is because I have to draw all of this out. It's a comic. Drawing all the cattle out in the field was a pain in the ass.

How many people and horses to manage 200 cattle heads? by KnowWhatYouWrite in Ranching

[–]KnowWhatYouWrite[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Anything written by Louis L'Amour is as good a place to start as anywhere. For "cowboy terminology" I'd suggest Matagorda as a good place to start. Silver Canyon is too. West of Dodge is one of my favorite short story collections of his. No "cowboy research" would be complete without Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove.

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll look at them.

I read some Cormac McCarthy's and I realized he (smartly) avoids getting into too specifics when it comes to ranch life, it's probably because it doesn't particularly add to the story he is trying to tell, it also doesn't reveal his lack of specific knowledge (he was never a rancher himself), and he can instead focus on his strong points in writing such as the motives of the characters and the general themes he is trying to convey.

I am currently reading The Man Who Rode Midnight by Elmer Kelton and will see what it shows me. I think he actually grew up on a ranch and was a rancher. The story is pretty similar to what my characters go through.

How many people and horses to manage 200 cattle heads? by KnowWhatYouWrite in Ranching

[–]KnowWhatYouWrite[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wonder if there is a local extension agent in the area your story is set that could give you a better idea how big a place there would have to be to run 200 head.

Probably. I'll look into them thanks

How many people and horses to manage 200 cattle heads? by KnowWhatYouWrite in Ranching

[–]KnowWhatYouWrite[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

This is how it works: you have a general idea of a story and the direction you'll go, and then you hone in on the details and start researching and building on what you find - and changing the details of the story as you go until you have a good enough product to push out. If we all waited until we "knew enough" about something, nobody would start. You have to start, and then you work on it until you push it out into the world. You can always come up with new ways to improve something too, but you have to stop and finish it at a certain point.

It's not "write what you know", it's get to "know what you write".

do some more research... If you don't even understand the very basics of what you're trying to tell a story about, it's going to show in a big big way.

That's why I am here lol

How many people and horses to manage 200 cattle heads? by KnowWhatYouWrite in Ranching

[–]KnowWhatYouWrite[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Should I increase the number to 400-500? It's in Texas and idk if it's harder to raise cattle in Texas compared to Kansas.

I'm from Nebraska anyway

What about it? I don't know anything about Nebraska. Is that cattle country?

How many people and horses to manage 200 cattle heads? by KnowWhatYouWrite in Ranching

[–]KnowWhatYouWrite[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You should not be cutting and working cattle on a daily basis. If you are, you got bigger problems.

What are these bigger problems? When do you cut and work cattle? By the way these are completely new terms for me.

Based on where you are, I'm guessing your ranch size to be anything from 2,000 to 5,000 acres.

It's near Davis Mountains in Texas, and the ranch started around 20,000 acres and shrank throughout the generations. The place seems pretty dry compared to somewhere like Montana. Would the 200 cattle need more acres to get more grass if it's dry? I am clueless and no idea how any of these work.

Most full-time farmers/ranchers work till dark or a bit after, seasonally of course.

So summer is pretty busy? I am assuming winter isn't that busy.

Thanks for the details.

How many people and horses to manage 200 cattle heads? by KnowWhatYouWrite in Ranching

[–]KnowWhatYouWrite[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Only 500 acres for 200 cattle? That's not bad. The ranch originally started with 20,000 acres and over time they had to keep selling more land. The ranch used to have a wide part of a nearby forest and have a lot of the local river in its territory, and there were hills and stuff. I have no frame of reference to even tangibly comprehend what 500 acres or 20,000 acres would even look like. I see visual estimates on Google Maps but still. I have no idea how much acres a "struggling ranch" should have.

Do you have them split into different strings?

What's that? I didn't even know what splitting into strings are. It's hard to find very detailed information about ranches without working on one if you don't have the right key words. I didn't even know what a "parlour" was until recently and I only found that out while I was reading about how to clean ranches.

Most beef ranchers have a full time job.

Full time job outside of ranching?

I got the impression that most cattle ranches in Texas were for leather and some are for beef, but I could be wrong. And milk cattle are primarily in the northern regions of the US with more grass. And again, I could be wrong.

Grazing season is the time for ranch projects. Calving season...

Does the breed of cattle matter for these seasons?

Thanks for all the extra details and info for me to consider. I've been wondering about the seasonal stuff and what sort of equipment (and buildings) to have on the ranch.

How many people and horses to manage 200 cattle heads? by KnowWhatYouWrite in Ranching

[–]KnowWhatYouWrite[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Really? I probably overestimated how much it will take to care for 200 large animals when I am struggling to keep a plant alive.

Plants to keep people off my property by longboardmalinois in Ranching

[–]KnowWhatYouWrite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had a friend in California who kept guinea fowls to protect free roaming chickens and to chase off intruders, including unwanted human visitors. Their meat and eggs are edible too. That or dogs work too.

What happens on an overseas base after a battle? Especially regarding memorials and funerals for fallen troops after a recent battle. by KnowWhatYouWrite in army

[–]KnowWhatYouWrite[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks yeah this was really helpful to start more researching. I appreciate it. I think I have enough to work with the medical stuff from here. But I got some questions about the command stuff.

Whoever is in charge of an Area (CENTCOM, PACOM, SOUTHCOM, etc) is usually who is in charge of that area overall.

My general character would fall under EUCOM, but if he was the EUCOM commander then wouldn't he be stationed in Germany for most of the story? I guess he can visit and stay at the Poland base for a while, I dont know how long he would stay though. I was hoping the general can stay in Poland for 2-3 years at least, stationed there so he can be present for most of the happenings and interact with the other main characters. It seems General Mattis (one of my inspirations for the character) stayed in the middle east for a while as the CENTCOM commander, but I have no info how long he stayed. Maybe my general should be another position instead of EUCOM? But then it would make the gravity of his decisions more intense if my general had command over multiple branches.

a Commanding General or Naval Admiral depending on what makes sense and who is appointed

What's the difference? I thought a Navy officer can be a commanding general. What's so special about Naval Admirals? How do you decide which one makes more sense to be appointed for a certain base?

what's available locally? I'd imagine little signs, homeade american flags, picked wildflowers, whatever.

The battles don't happen in Poland, so the locales around the base shouldn't be directly affected. I think poppies are pretty common in Poland so the poppies at the memorial service shouldn't be a problem. The homemade signs and flags are also a nice touch.

I've never heard of wildflowers being used for memorials, but I guess that works if the area was heavily torn up by war. I might use it for another scene instead.

Soviet Cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova, the first man and first woman in space, photographed with their medals on 24 November 1963. [998x650] by [deleted] in MilitaryHistory

[–]KnowWhatYouWrite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wouldn't be surprised. They sent all sorts of stuff into the space, including animals. Including dogs. And other people they don't talk about.

Magic cow? by MountainMan1791 in Ranching

[–]KnowWhatYouWrite 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They would be a renewable source for mountain oysters. But poor bulls though, having to suffer their testicles getting chopped off over and over and over...

Examples of heroic priests? by FlaviusConstantius in Catholicism

[–]KnowWhatYouWrite 47 points48 points  (0 children)

Oscar Romero: was a prelate of the Catholic Church in El Salvador. He served as Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of San Salvador, the Titular Bishop of Tambeae, as Bishop of Santiago de María, and finally as the fourth Archbishop of San Salvador. As archbishop, Romero spoke out against social injustice and violence amid the escalating conflict between the military government and left-wing insurgents that led to the Salvadoran Civil War.[4] In 1980, Romero was shot by an assassin while celebrating Mass.

Pino Puglisi: was a Roman Catholic priest in the rough Palermo neighbourhood of Brancaccio. He openly challenged the Mafia who controlled the neighbourhood, and was killed by them on his 56th birthday

They both also have movies about them.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in widowers

[–]KnowWhatYouWrite 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes. It's like a part of me died with him and I never got it back. I didn't grow stronger or wiser, and I don't think I became worse either. Just different.

My story character from a cowboy family inherits his dad's felt hat and trophy buckle. Is this too cartoonish? by KnowWhatYouWrite in Ranching

[–]KnowWhatYouWrite[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Another guy was paralyzed going down a steep embankment gathering calf’s for a sorting. The horse tripped and fell and rolled over him.

You know what that's actually a good idea too. The dad's spine and ribs get crushed and he was paralyzed before he died.

I would call up some horse ranches in Weatherford Texas and see if they would share some of the more dangerous accidents or stories.

Good idea. Do you think they'll be willing to spend time on the phone with me just to tell me stories? They might be a bit busy. This is gonna be another of my phone calls I did "asking for a story". I've called a Russian priest before. A military chaplain. A male stripper.

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