Ree Drummond did not arrive on an Oklahoma cattle ranch knowing the difference between a steer and a heifer. In fact, she once admitted she used to call pretty much every bovine animal a cow—which worked beautifully until a 3-year-old Alex corrected her. Humbling! Before marrying Ladd, Ree had grown up on a golf course, lived in Los Angeles, wore black pumps to work, ate sushi, and generally had no reason to know what happened inside a working chute. She once described herself as “a ridiculous city girl stuck in the country, trying desperately to act the part.”
Then she fell in love with a cowboy, moved to the middle of nowhere, and got herself quite an education. Early in their relationship, Ladd invited her to work cattle, an invitation Ree accepted without having “any notion” what that actually meant. Let's just say her initiation involved a vaccination needle, a branding iron, and more cow manure than her former L.A. life had prepared her for.
Longtime Pioneer Woman readers have gotten a ranch education right along with her. By now, you may know that “shipping cattle” does not involve bubble wrap and a cattle guard is not a gentleman standing at the gate checking IDs. But if you live within a comfortable radius of a Starbucks—or you've ever heard Ree casually mention “sorting off pairs” and nodded along as if this made perfect sense—this little ranch glossary is for you.
No cowboy hat required. Though it certainly wouldn't hurt!
- Working cattle: This is the big one! “Working cattle” is a catchall for bringing cattle into a working area and doing whatever needs to be done, which can include branding, vaccinating, castrating, weaning calves, or checking cows for pregnancy. (It does not, in fact, mean the cattle have obtained employment—though some of them probably have the attitude of middle management.)
- Gathering cattle: Before you can work ’em, you have to gather ’em! As Ree explained years ago, this simply means rounding up the cattle in a pasture and moving them to the place where they'll be worked. She also noted that gathering is especially enjoyable when she's participating from a vehicle with coffee in hand. Ree knows her strengths!
- Sorting: Once you've gathered a herd, you may need certain animals to go one way and the rest to go another. That's sorting. Cowboys on horseback move individual cattle or groups away from the herd, which looks remarkably smooth when people like Ladd do it and considerably less achievable to those of us who are still looking for the seatbelt on the horse.
- Pair: On the ranch, a “pair” isn't a set of boots or matching throw pillows. It's a mama cow and her nursing calf. During calving seasons, the Drummonds often sort pairs together so mama and baby stay where they're supposed to be. Very important. Also very cute!
- Dry cow: No, she hasn't given up wine for January. A dry cow is a cow that hasn't calved and isn't producing milk, so when Ree writes about the cowboys “sorting off the dry cows,” they're simply separating them from the mama-and-baby pairs.
- Preg-testing (and “bred”): If Ree says the cows are being “preg-tested,” she means exactly what it sounds like: a veterinarian is checking to see which cows are pregnant and roughly how far along they are. A pregnant cow may also be described as bred. Ree gave readers an extremely thorough Working Ranch 101 lesson on how the vet determines this back in 2006, and we'll let you decide how much detail you'd like to read on that’.
- Steer vs. heifer: Ree herself once needed this lesson, so we're all among friends here! A steer is a male bovine that's been castrated, while a heifer is a young female that hasn't yet had a calf. Ree once confused “heifer” with “Hereford,” which is an actual breed of cattle, and the cowboys apparently enjoyed that mistake very much. Rude, but educational.
- Yearling (or stocker): A yearling is a steer or heifer that's around a year old. In a yearling or stocker operation, ranchers take weaned calves and keep them grazing as they grow bigger before moving on to the next stage. Ladd once explained that the Drummonds run yearlings both on grass at the ranch and on wheat pasture at their farm.
- Cow-calf operation: This is the part of ranching centered around keeping reproducing cows that have calves. Pretty straightforward until you start discussing breeding schedules, weaning rates, replacement heifers, and how many bulls you need per cow—and then Ree starts asking Ladd questions on behalf of the rest of us. (Her Cow/Calf 101 lesson is there if you'd like to go back to school.)
- Weaning—or “getting the bawl out of ’em”: Weaning means separating a calf from its mother and transitioning it away from nursing. Ree learned another slightly more colorful ranch phrase for the adjustment period: “get the bawl out of ’em.” The calves tend to cry for a few days, which Ree found deeply upsetting because naturally she identified with the mothers. Once a mom, always a mom—even when the children in question weigh several hundred pounds.
- Processing cattle: This sounds a little mysterious, but on the Drummond operation, processing newly arrived cattle can mean branding, deworming, and vaccinating them before they're moved out to pasture. They're then watched closely while they settle in, because cowboys also need to be very good at noticing when an animal isn't feeling well.
- Doctoring: Ranchers don't mean they're handing out medical degrees. If an animal is sick, to doctor it means to treat it; Ladd has explained that this can involve gathering the animal to the pens or roping it where it is and giving the needed medication. So when you hear “we had to doctor a steer,” it doesn’t mean a cowboy has suddenly enrolled him in medical school.
- Trap: This one sounds much more sinister than it is. On the ranch, a trap is simply a smaller pasture, often used to help move cattle toward the pens or to keep newly arrived cattle in a manageable area while they're getting accustomed to the feed truck. Essentially: a waiting room, but with grass!
- Shipping cattle: When the Drummonds talk about a big “shipping” day, they're gathering cattle, moving them through the pens, weighing and sorting them, and then loading the sold animals onto livestock trucks. It's a whole operation—and once the buyer and trucks are lined up, Ladd has explained, a little rain isn't enough to call the whole thing off.
- Cattle guard: Finally, the thing you've probably driven over without knowing its name! A cattle guard is a row of metal pipes laid over a ditch at an entrance or roadway. Vehicles can cross it, but cattle generally won't because of the gaps beneath their feet. Ree learned how important this was when the family's cattle guard accidentally got filled with dirt and gravel and cows began wandering into the yard. As one does. 😂
