THE RUNNING IRON 4

jenson came back to the corral "the state vet cant have anyone here until tomorrow. pair that calf up with his mother then if the rest of the cows here are yours you can turn them back to the pasture. ill be here at 8 in the morning. the vet should be here then ill bring mr. brooks also. we need a little come to jesus over that mis branded calf." mike simply nodded" thanks for all your doing. but what will happen if that calf does have screw worms?" " they will likley quaranteen a big area around here. but lets see what the vet says tomorrow" jenson explained. jenson got in his truck and drove away. mike and emily stood there together watching him raise dust. " get your horse and lets figgure out what we got here." mike said. emily went to her horse as did mike. after he released the calf from the chute. then they sat and watched to see what mother cow would claim the calf. after a half hour a tall thin cross bred cow allowed the calf to suck. emily opened a side corral and mike started easing the pair to the gate. when he had them corraled he could see the cow wore the ladder brand. going back to the big corral he rode through the rest of the cows but they were all 66 ranch cows emily opened the gate and they drove them out of the corral and started them back up country in the pasture. after a while they were sure the cows were going home in the pasture mike and emily turned back toward home. after a while emiley asked mike " whats the big deal about a screw worm?" " you never had to deal with them but they are pretty bad. they multiply very rapid and any raw wound or cut on a animal they get into quick left un treate they can kill lots of animals. there was a time the whole southern end of the state was infested with them. cowboys carried dope to treat the wounds. lots of ropin went on. the goverment figgured out the female fly only mates once in her life. so the goverment started raising the flys and the male flys they sterolized. they turned loose millions and millions of them. thats what finaly pushed them back into mexico. we cant afford even one case like this one."mike went into details explaining about the fly " i watched my dad and others ride from daylite to dark doctoring, i can even still smell the dope they smeared on the infested cuts. it didnt hardly wash off. it was all mom could do to cook a meal with dad there,"mike was remembering a past that few were aware of anymore. " we are gonna wear out some horses keeping watch now its bad enough we got a neighbor with a running iron habit but he brings the fly too. after tomorrow we better stock up on everything you can think of. we wont have a free day for a while." mike sounded down emily couldnt believe what she was hearing. she wasnt ranch raised. so she was learning lots of thinggs, but what she just heard she didnt think was good.