Next along the Fort Churchill road was what seemed to be a derelict feedlot and a couple of haystacks. Somewhat odd as I had not seen any beef or dairy cattle since I turned off of US and onto Fort Churchill road. Coming up the US 395 from California I saw quite a few cattle ranches but very little after I left Dayton. Nevada has mucho amounts of open ranges for cattle grazing but with the ongoing drought and vast imports of cheap beef from Brazil, Australia, South Africa and just about every beef producing nation including maybe even Greenland:

Population 55,847
Cattle       47
Cattle Exports to the USA 46!

Well maybe not exactly 46, but I am sure you get the point. And what does this have to with a few photos of an abandoned cattle lot in a remote part of Northeastern Nevada? Hmmmmm, I don't remember, got distracted by a bug crawling on my wall like he owned the place.

Here we see typical alfalfa fields that follow the course of the Carson River through this narrow valley. On the left photo you can see what I believe is the Pine Nut Mountain range. A ditch known as the Koch Ditch runs along and almost parallel with the Fort Churchill road for the first 1/3 of the run to Fort Churchill. This is probably where most of the farms along the Carson River get their water for irrigation from.


 









Below you can see that this river valley can be very narrow at times but also with a few wide desert plains further down the road. The road itself is well maintained enough for the average family sedan to make the drive. I saw only about 6 to 8 vehicles pass me while I was stopped to take photos during the entire trip!

Ok, now for some old ranch & farm equipment! We all love old stuff right? This wooden contraption on the below right photo is a cattle chute or more often known as squeeze chutes. The idea is that after you have rounded up your beef herd from the open range and coerced the bovines into the corral, you stop, for a half hour waiting for the cattle semi-truck to arrive. While you (the cowboy, cowhand or cow whisperer) are waiting for the truck, you a nice ice cold lemonade and a no-bake peanut butter cookie.

So when the cattle truck arrives and drives up to the squeeze chute all you have to do coerce those hefty 4-legged walking hamburgers into the cattle trailer via the squeez chute 1 at a time counting as they are loaded so you can get paid a full days wage. Simple huh?

The use of wooden squeeze chutes has probably been greatly diminished in our current world due to mass manufacturing of mobile metal squeeze chutes.

Even though the corral, the squeeze chute and the feed lot in the back looked to have been abandoned many years ago maybe even decades in the past this facility had at one time electrical power and floodlights to work at night! This indicates that the entire process at point in time was making a profit. Oops, I said a nasty 4-letter curse word. 


Oh what we can see from satellites today! Here is a photo of the same fed lot / corral / squeeze chute taken from a couple hundred miles straight up into outer space. If this is the level of commercial satellite sensing technology at present, just imagine what the CIA, NSA, FBI, BLM and the TSA can see and view. Not even mentioning what the US Military has available in satellite technology.

Whatever!

Hey look you can see that those haystacks have recently had some of their bales removed. One would not have been able to readily notice this from the roadside level.

Something you do not see that often, the haystack has been marked with a fresh number painted on with a template. Notice in the foreground the young green weeds  "Russian thistle" (Kali tragus) and cheat grass against the corral fence, both of these plants are non-native and destructive to our environment. The Russian thistle is the well known and notorious tumbleweed. The heavy wood corral now is slowly collapsing. This scene can be observed throughout the American West in almost all rural areas.

In the lower right photo. I give up! OK? what is this? Feeding chute?  If you know what it is, you can educate the rest of us by e-mailing:

















Where oh where can you be my bovine friends? I see your breakfast and lunch restaurant counter below. You and all you bovine buddies once had a nice view of the hills while munching on your fresh breakfast of green alfalfa and lunch which consisted of whatever was left over from breakfast.

I have the same issue!










One last look at the alfalfa fields across the road with the Carson River Riparian Zone beyond the fields.

Ok, so where to next. How about we continue further down the Fort Churchill road and see just what interesting people, rural country views, structures, historical places we may see along with actually getting to Fort Churchill!