A solitary Hereford cow was standing calm and relaxed in a sea of golden grass deep in the Sangre De Cristo Range of Northern New Mexico.
Mutual Respect
When traversing the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, we inevitably will cross the path of some open range cattle. Teig does get a bit excited when he sees cows who notice him. On this day we were above Buena Vista and there were quite a few of them on the ridges feeding. This cow and her calf watched as we approached. Teig barked once then just stared at her and her calf. They pondered each other for a couple of minutes and then Teig continued on… I guess there was mutual respect and no further contact was required.
Longhorns Grazing on Wyoming Grass
The couple of Texas Longhorn steers were grazing on grassland near Devils Tower National Monument in Northern Wyoming. It caught me by surprise to see them out on the prairie grassland mixing in with the American Bison.The Texas Longhorn was fashioned entirely by nature in North America. Stemming from ancestors that were the first cattle to set foot on American soil almost 500 years ago, they became the sound end product of "survival of the fittest". With the destruction of the buffalo following the Civil War, the Longhorns were rushed in to occupy the Great Plains, a vast empire of grass vacated by the buffalo. Cattlemen brought their breeding herds north to run on the rich grazing lands of western Nebraska, Wyoming, the Dakotas, and Montana. Thus, the Great Plains became stocked largely with these "bovine citizens" from the Southwest.
Longhorns Grazing on Wyoming Grass