Riders nudge their cows along gently. The herd holds together. They'll be on new grass before the day is over. But there's trouble if those pairs get separated. The cowboys know that when range cattle are pushed too hard, the herd spreads out fast.
Calves lose their mothers and start bawling like babies.
They fall to the back and try to slip riders holding the drag. Scared and disoriented, the calves remember only where they last sucked, and instinct tells them that's where they'll find their mothers. On Canada's largest cattle ranch, the 500,000-acre Douglas Lake Ranch in southern British Columbia, cattle drives to new pastures at higher elevations have changed little in the last 100 years. The ranch carries 18,000 cattle over the summer. Each spring they are moved out from the home ranch in herds of 500 to 600 animals.