September is a month of change in farm and ranch country beyond the change in routine from summer to school and mornings that hint at fall temperatures.

Cattle producers around the state are preg-checking cows and heifers in anticipation of springtime calving but the event that truly marks fall is weaning. Cow calf pairs are brought in and sorted, the cows’ pregnancies are confirmed – hopefully with high rates of success – and sent back out on grass until colder weather. Calves are kept separate, most typically vaccinated, and often fed for 60 days or so prior to shipping. A rancher will tell you the calves are fed until “they get the bawl out.” That bawl is a bit of a cacophony and is the soundtrack of September on our operation and others like it as calves adjust to their new, independent status.

The cows sometimes bawl back a bit if they’re nearby, but I’m sure there is some relief to no longer be nursing a 650-pound calf while growing another in utero.

The fall run is marked in ag country by drilling wheat, chopping corn silage, moving cows closer to ranch headquarters ahead of calving, and shipping calves. For most people, it means additional farm equipment and silage trucks on the roads but for ag producers, it also means a paycheck isn’t far away.

When calves are shipped, they weigh in the 700-pound range and can be marketed several different ways. The Santomaso family, the family who owns Sterling Livestock Commission, will tell you there is no better method of true price discovery than an auction. Jason Santomaso and sale barn guys like him can be heard on farm radio stations each fall morning talking about the calves consigned to their weekly and special sales. It goes a bit like: “we have 40 head of mixed steers and heifers, all black hided, weighing 800-to-850 pounds from ABC Ranch in Wiggins, Colorado. They’re long weaned, pre-conditioned, and all sired by high-growth Angus bulls…”

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It may sound like Greek to some, but to others, it sounds like music to their ears. These calves, called feeder calves because they’re ready to go to feed and begin the process of gaining weight so they can be slaughtered typically at about 1,500-pounds, fill feedyard pens here in cattle-feeding country. It’s the next step after leaving the cow calf operation. Many operations feed the calves through the winter and when they’re yearlings in the spring and summer months, they’ll spend some time out grazing before they are finished to their ideal weight in the feedyard. Feedyards play a crucial role for consumers because they allow a steady, year-round supply of beef.

The advent of online livestock auctions has allowed buyers and sellers to monitor, bid, buy and sell on their cell phone. Video auctions – the original began right here in Brush, by the Odle family – have also remained incredibly popular. Superior Auctions is often the background noise during the year at kitchen tables in ranch country. Videos are played of each group of cattle, be it feeder calves, heifers or cows, and all of the pertinent information about their genetics and how they were managed is displayed on the screen. They are located all over the country, and they sell millions of dollars of stock annually. Ralph Wade is a world champion auctioneer and has long been a fixture on Superior sales. His chant is unmistakable and the more seasoned ranchers around the state can remember when he began at Livestock Exchange in Brush and could be described by some as a long-haired hippy long before he was a legend.

Seasonality is a struggle that has long plagued the sheep business. Colorado has a long and storied history as a sheep state and remains the top sheep-feeding state in the country. Unlike most livestock, ewes are seasonal breeders dependent upon fluctuating environmental conditions. Lambs are born in the spring, spend their summers with the ewes out on grass when grazing quality is at its highest to support lactation. Lambs are weaned in the fall, and the feeder lambs all hit the feedyard at about the same time and are all ready for slaughter at about the same time. Cattle, for example, are not seasonal breeders and producers can manage their herds to calve when it’s most conducive to their weather conditions and the ins and outs of their operations.

Everything in the part of the country where cattle – and Friday night high school football – are king, is cyclical and the beginning of fall is no exception.

Rachel Gabel writes about agriculture and rural issues. She is assistant editor of The Fence Post Magazine, the region’s preeminent agriculture publication. Gabel is a daughter of the state’s oil and gas industry and a member of one of the state’s 12,000 cattle-raising families, and she has authored children’s books used in hundreds of classrooms to teach students about agriculture.