Pat Kreps watches her son Keith feed cows from atop her new horse at Kreps Ranch on Jan. 20. Pat said she has lost count of the dogs living and working with her progeny on the ranch.
Keith Kreps drops a bale of hay to waiting cows at Kreps Ranch as hired hand Ken Warren turns to grab another bale. Cows are fed every morning at each of the 22 barns, Kreps said.
Keith Kreps drives cows across a pasture at Kreps Ranch on Jan. 20. Kreps said cows “hate going to the doctor,” and can be stubborn about going to the lot where they receive veterinary treatment like vaccines.
Keith Kreps prepares a hypodermic needle for vaccinating cattle as nephew Kevin Kreps warms vaccine bottles and a delousing solution in a bucket of warm water. Cows were vaccinated for scours and a pour-on delouser was applied.
Pat Kreps watches her son Keith feed cows from atop her new horse at Kreps Ranch on Jan. 20. Pat said she has lost count of the dogs living and working with her progeny on the ranch.
The Kreps family doesn’t like to pay people for things they can get done themselves.
Matriarch Pat Kreps lives in a log home built from trees cut and milled by her progeny. The Kreps’ sawmill also produced much of the wood used to build the numerous outbuildings dotting the family’s central plot.
Pat maintains an acre of vegetable garden which feeds the family and “half the community,” her eldest son Keith said. Two of the most impressive sets of elk antlers hanging in the shop were harvested on the ranch, as were many of the other numerous deer and elk mounts on display.
Keith Kreps drops a bale of hay to waiting cows at Kreps Ranch as hired hand Ken Warren turns to grab another bale. Cows are fed every morning at each of the 22 barns, Kreps said.
Walker Sacon photo
Kreps Ranch’s headquarters spread out across the Gilmer Valley east of BZ Corner. The 2,700-odd acres of pasture and timber, which Keith’s great grandfather started buying when he was a mail and freight carrier in the area during the Great Depression, includes pieces of 11 former homesteads, he said.
Pat’s first husband — Keith’s father, Chip — is buried next to Old Man Gilmer’s cemetery over by “Yellow Barn.” Chip received some of his education in a schoolhouse which still stands by a pasture just west of his final resting place.
Running the ranch is expensive, Keith said, calling the vet (or the mechanic, or the plumber) every time something’s wrong or maintenance is due simply wouldn’t be sustainable.
The cows — and the machines, dogs and people that work with them — aren’t exempt from the frugal approach. When a cow smashed Keith’s finger against a metal bar, he wrapped the finger up tight and got back to work. When it’s time for the cows to get their shots, the Kreps skip the phone and grab their boxes of veterinary tools.
Keith Kreps drives cows across a pasture at Kreps Ranch on Jan. 20. Kreps said cows “hate going to the doctor,” and can be stubborn about going to the lot where they receive veterinary treatment like vaccines.
Walker Sacon photo
Bringing the cows, in groups of roughly 20 head, to the corral next to the chute where they’re vaccinated is a bit of a production. Many of the cows are driven along the sometimes-busy BZ Glenwood Highway and Keith says cattle “hate going to the doctor,” and resist entering the corral.
Keith said cows receive vaccines throughout the year. Most get three or four shots in the fall and receive more in the spring, depending on where they’ll be let out to range.
On Wednesday, Jan. 20, Keith, his nephew Kevin Kreps and hired hand Ken Warren vaccinated cows for scours and sprayed a delousing solution on their backs, checking cows for missing ear tags as they went.
Scours, calfhood diarrhea which can be caused by a variety of microbials, can cause complications throughout a cow’s life and is potentially fatal, according to a Washington State University Extension webpage. Keith said vaccinating mature cows builds immunity in their future calves.
Kevin Kreps checks a cow’s ear for a tattooed ID number as he prepares to replace a missing ear tag.
Walker Sacon photo
Keith and Kevin joked that the cows were receiving their “COVID vaccines” as they warmed bottles labeled “Bovine Rotavirus-Coronavirus Vaccine” in a bucket of hot water.
With their tools ready and a group of cattle corralled, the men and their dogs poked, prodded, whipped and barked three cows at a time into the chute, separating those with damaged or missing ear tags as they went.
Cows that needed replacement tags were pushed into the Kreps’ new hydraulic squeeze chute which holds a cow (mostly) still, allowing the ranchers to trim the fur from its ear in search of a tattooed ID number and attach new tags as needed.
Keith, 60, dressed in drab colors and rode a white horse but provided plenty of color to the affair with his language as he swore and shouted at cows and dogs alike.
He chased cows while mounted or on foot, answered phone calls on a wireless earpiece and barked orders, sometimes doing all of the above at once. The dogs’ obedience and Kevin’s wry smile suggested nothing was out of the ordinary.
“He started putting sentences together before he was 1,” Pat said, “and he hasn’t stopped since.”
Keith said day-to-day life at Kreps Ranch hasn’t changed much during the COVID-19 pandemic. The family doesn’t go into town more than they need to and there’s plenty to keep busy with in the meantime. There are cows to feed, machines to fix, fences to mend and sheds to build, he said.
Keith Kreps prepares a hypodermic needle for vaccinating cattle as nephew Kevin Kreps warms vaccine bottles and a delousing solution in a bucket of warm water. Cows were vaccinated for scours and a pour-on delouser was applied.
Walker Sacon photo
“We always need more storage,” Keith said.
“We have too much stuff!” Pat interjected. She said a neighbor once suggested to her father-in-law that the family put a roof over the whole valley when they started constructing a new outbuilding.
It’s not unusual to find three generations of Kreps working on the ranch. Pat doesn’t work the cows much these days, but still tends her garden. She’s lost count of both barns and border collies on the ranch, instead focusing on counting grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
