April 2, 2013

[Soapweed]

Always top-of-the-line music in our little country church

Ready for our first branding

My little buddy enjoying his ride

127 head to do today

Self shot of a an old guy and his grandkid

The bases are loaded

And I'm up to bat

He will be helping before too long.

Things are happening.

My sister threads the wheel and coils up the ropes.

Ready for the next round. We do 27 head in each batch, then let them out before doing 27 more.
This is the amount that the vaccine guns hold, and a good time to change ropers.

Roanie eyeballing the situation

There seems to be some green stuff on the bottom of his shoes. :wink:

Proud mother

Wheel in motion

Waiting for the signal to start

He snagged one.

Both heels need to be caught for the system to work.

Coming out

Threading the needle

Ready for processing

The roper gets another rope to catch another calf.

Ready to throw the loop

And the shot is good.

The branding is proceeding nicely on a very fine no-wind type of day.

 

[gcreekrch]

You need rain Soap, I hope you recieve lots of it in short order.

Calves look good as always. May they be the last, most expensive crop you have to raise.

 

[WyomingRancher]

Looking great, as usual . I'm glad your first branding went good, but I hope you get rained out of a few of them this spring. We were just discussing drought plans again, and when to early wean...one advantage of being a dumb early calver I guess :wink: 8) .

 

[Faster horses]

That's a fancy-looking set of calves, Soapweed.
I bet you get more moisture soon. Here in SE Mt we finally
got 5" of snow on the leve. Before that the wind blew the snow
in drifts, so hopefully some of the ponds will fill.

The northern hills of SD didn't get hardly anything. We got a bit north of
Whitewood, Belle Fourche didn't look like they got anything at all.

Wouldn't a big GENERAL rain be good?

 

[DB Cooper]

Soapweed:
You have a fine looking herd there and a better looking family but I am amazed at the dearth of trees in the Sandhills.

 

[Soapweed]

Soapweed:
I am amazed at the dearth of trees in the Sandhills.

Yes, the dearth of trees is despairingly dire in this "neck of the woods." :wink:

A good rain would do a lot of morale boosting in this vicinity. I think we might get some within the week.

 

[TizHot]

Soapweed I was amazed at the deweze set up! Never seen something like that before-very impressive! Being that we are farmers and ranchers we do things abit different. Guess we cassify ourselves as "cattlemen" not "cowboys"! Ha. Thats what a neighbor told me and its kinda stuck, cause God knows there is alot of difference! Great pictures and setup.

 

[Justin]

good lookin calves and crew, Soap. i hope you get some moisture soon, the grass is trying to green up here but if we don't get some rain that's as far as it's gonna get. we all need to keep our fingers crossed..

 

[RSL]

You are going to need more cows when the next generation of cow crew get a bit older. Nice pics.

 

[Denny]

Looks nice there we've got over a foot of heavy wet snow here yet been melting slowly soaking in as it does.

 

[DB Cooper]

Yes, the dearth of trees is despairingly dire in this "neck of the woods." :wink:

Due to the drought, no doubt. [/quote]

 

[littlejoe]

I always thoroughly enjoy watching your crew work~~

Looks like your setup would work best on hip brands?

If calf ain't double hocked, ground crew throws a half hitch, or what?

I never noticed before that the bale arms on your bed got rectangular tubing welded on for sideboards---that a new deal or an add on?

Made me a wire roller that bolts onto the back---2 bolts, plugs into the quick coupler for squeeze---

Always enjoy your pictures----you have a gift of being able to capture the essence of a lovely family~~

 

[Soapweed]

I always thoroughly enjoy watching your crew work~~

Thanks, littlejoe.

Looks like your setup would work best on hip brands?

It probably works best on hip brands, but would also work with a rib brand.

If calf ain't double hocked, ground crew throws a half hitch, or what?

If the calf isn't double hocked, the roper allows the calf to step free and then tries again. Sometimes, if a single leg has been roped, someone on the ground will just hold the calf down and reposition the rope so both heels are caught.

I never noticed before that the bale arms on your bed got rectangular tubing welded on for sideboards---that a new deal or an add on?

The only problem with a factory made Hydra-Bed is that the bed is completely flat with no siderails. My son, Sparky, who is a first-class welder, put the three inch tubular steel siderails on two of our Hydra-Beds. This makes the flatbed much more usable, because things are not continually falling off. The company should have a similar add-on available, but they don't. Sparky has done this to pickups belonging to neighbors also, and everyone that has this feature really likes it.

Made me a wire roller that bolts onto the back---2 bolts, plugs into the quick coupler for squeeze---

Always enjoy your pictures----you have a gift of being able to capture the essence of a lovely family~~

Thanks for the compliments.