Photos and article by Mary Alice Murphy
Ranch Days 042418
Ranch Days 042418
Students from Stout watch the arcing demonstration at the electrical generating plant, provided by NavApache.
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Ranch Days 042418
A mule packer from the Glenwood Ranger District talks to Harrison Schmitt students about mule packing in the national forest.
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Ranch Days 042418
Stout Elementary students line up to try shooting arrows at the targets
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Ranch Days 042418
JC Nelson, E. Sprague and J. Jump work with the ropes
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Ranch Days 042418
Grant County extension agent Judy O'Loughlin talks about churning butter
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Ranch Days 042418
José Barrios students get a chance to churn butter
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Ranch Days 042418
Students watch as the biscuits, which will be cooked in a Dutch oven, and then presented to them to eat, are cut
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Ranch Days 042418
Students from Cliff Elementary look at different soils, led by Cody Robertson
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Ranch Days 042418
A sunny and almost windless day created a dramatic reflection of a cottonwood tree in the pond at the McKeen Ranch
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Ranch Days 042418
Farrier Christin Sell talked to students from Stout Elementary about creating horseshoes from heated iron.
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Ranch Days 042418
Doug Cram talked about fire, forest and wildlife identification to students from Alpine.
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Ranch Days 042418
Alpine students get an up close look at ginned and baled cotton.
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Ranch Days 042418
Ernest Herrera shows the Alpine students all about ginning and baling cotton.
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Ranch Days 042418
Blake Penrod of Alpine, tries his hand at shooting a target, led by Craig Painter
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Ranch Days 042418
The very patient cannulated cow keeps chowing down on the feed.
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Ranch Days 042418
Kirsten Romig, USDA, shows the students what they will pull out of the cannulated cow
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Ranch Days 042418
Cliff students wait their turn to put their gloved hands into the cannulated cow.
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Ranch Days 042418
John Smith puts rumen wrung out of partially digested hay from the cannulated cow on a slide to show bacteria to students.
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Ranch Days 042418
Kaylie Berry and Sarah Sorrell of Harrison Schmitt show off their gloves.
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Ranch Days 042418
Cliff Elementary students check out an 82-year-old tractor
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Ranch Days 042418
Alpine Elementary students look at an 82-year-old hay baler.
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Ranch Days 042418
A student puts melted honey butter on another student's biscuit
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Ranch Days 042418
Traci Curry explains everyday agriculture to a group of students
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Ranch Days 042418
Tracy Drummond, Catron County Ag Agent, presented the Outstanding Agriculture Leadership Award to Marge McKeen, organizer of Ranch Days, while Tom Dean of NMSU Co-operative Extension Service places the medal around Marge's neck.
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Ranch Days 042418
A proud husband, co-organizer of Ranch Days, Hugh B. McKeen, congratulates his wife, Marge
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Ranch Days 042418
Preparing to brand new calves Photo by Frank Kenney
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Ranch Days 042418
High B. branding this calf Photo by Frank Kenney
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Ranch Days 042418
Roped and ready. Photo by Frank Kenney
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Ranch Days 042418
Branding Photo by Frank Kenney
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Ranch Days 042418
Branded and ear notched Photo by Frank Kenney
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Ranch Days 042418
What just happened, Mommy? Photo by Frank Kenney
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Ranch Days took place on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 24 and 25, 2018 at the Hugh B. McKeen Ranch near Alma, NM.
A special part of the event was a surprise awarding of the Outstanding Agriculture Leadership Award to Marge McKeen for her many years of support for agriculture, including more than 50 years as a 4-H leader. She knew about the award ceremony, which had taken place the weekend before, but had no idea the presentation would be done at Ranch Days.
Stations, where students could learn about various aspects of ranching, included the cannulated cow, where through a tube in the cow's side, students one at a time can reach in with a glove-covered hand and arm to take some partially digested hay out of one of the cow's stomachs, wring out the rumen, and discard the hay. The rumen is put on a glass slide, and the students can see through a microscope the bacteria found in the stomach.
Old farm equipment from the 1980s, led by Henry and Nita Imel of Glenwood featured a tractor and a hay baler.
Students could try their hand at shooting at a target, with Craig Painter or Steve Beck giving instructions, hear from Ernest Herrera about how cotton is ginned to draw out the fibers to make clothing and other fabric items, and watch as farrier Christin Sell or Vince Vesely created horseshoes from a piece of heated iron.
Herrera said 8,340 men's handkerchiefs can be made from a bale of cotton. The same size bale produces 21,970 women's handkerchiefs.
Robbie and Jody Birch of Gila talked about beekeeping; Doug Cram of NMSU discussed fire, forest and wildlife identification; Traci Curry talked about everyday agriculture and Pat Hunt or Cody Robertson discussed soils.
Dean Foster, Dusty Hunt and Larry Foster cooked the Dutch Oven biscuits, which were served with a drizzle of honey butter, from butter hand churned with direction from Judy O'Loughlin. Mule packing was explained by a member of the U.S. Forest Service from the Glenwood District.
A new event this year featured an electrical generating station set up at one corner of the field, where students could watch a demonstration of electricity arcing. It was put on by Navopache Electric Cooperative.
After a sack lunch of hamburgers cooked by Frisco Cowbelles, the students were treated to an ice cream bar.
The finale of the event featured branding calves in the corral.