Branded more calves today

[Soapweed]

The Kosmo Kid got out of school at 2 p.m., and the rest of us had the cattle in and cows sorted away from the calves. Four of us did the branding. We did 119 head from 2:30 until a little after 5:30. It went pretty smooth and we all got a chance to rope. We kind of like our piddly little no-frills method of getting the job done, and picking nice weather to do it. :wink:

Saddletramp telling a tale

Getting things in orfer to brand calves

The branding corral set-up

Corral scene

Branding fire

Calves waiting their turn

These are all slick so far

Scene from the back of my horse

Processing the calves

Turning them loose

These are done

Calves getting worked

Checking for horns

Don't let the smoke get in your eyes

The Spearhead brand

Going out the gate

Taking a break

Dragging one in

Lining up on the calf trap

Everybody is working but me

 

[Canadian_Cowgirl]

Nice pictures... Next time you brand im going to come out

Think the Kosmo Kid would let me ride his horse?? No I changed my mind, can i ride the pretty paint??


Little Bo Peep

 

[Judith]

Great pictures Soapweed Saddletramp is so cute ya just wanna pinch his backside

 

[Tap]

You gotta love the thickness of your calves Soapweed. Those calves really caught my eye.

Sharp looking crew too.

I edited my post because the first time around there were some odd #'s in your post, then when it loaded the second time they were gone. :???: :???:

 

[txag]

Nice pictures, Soapweed. It sure looks like your weather was like ours today......nice & sunny.

 

[Jassy]

As usual, things look like they ran smoothly for ya..must be the talented help ya got! Course the weather today was perfect for a branding. Great Pictures! Thanks

 

[Hooks]

Four of us did the branding. We did 119 head from 2:30 until a little after 5:30

That's pretty decent stats for a 4 man(person) crew. Must have done it a time or two before. :wink:
I'm guessin those "holdin" rigs help speed things up quite a bit. Pretty efficient lookin operation.

 

[Soapweed]

Four of us did the branding. We did 119 head from 2:30 until a little after 5:30

That's pretty decent stats for a 4 man(person) crew. Must have done it a time or two before. :wink:
I'm guessin those "holdin" rigs help speed things up quite a bit. Pretty efficient lookin operation.

Thank you. The deciding factor is the roping, or how fast the calves are coming to the machines. With a five or six person crew, supposedly there is never any "down time," because there are two ropers. With just one roper, if a "hot streak" falls apart, there can be some down time. :wink:

 

[Radar]

That is one slick operation!

 

[High Plains]

Good pics, Soapweed. Looks like a fairly stress-free kind of a branding afernoon. Must be nice to not have to plan for a whole bunch of folks to help out and have the added worry of the weather working out at the prescribed day and time.

One question. Your wonderful spearhead brand is a good one, but to me it looks like you're sure putting it on fairly large on those calves. Any particular reason? Sorta looks like the irons that you'd use for mature animals. Not trying to punch holes in the proud signature of your ranch, just quizzin' you a little.

HP

 

[Stretch]

Thanks for another round of great pic's. Seeing you brand brings a couple question to mind, do you have to use hot iron or is freeze branding recognized just the same for the brand inspection ID? Around here few brand and the ones that do I would guess that about 80-90% of them use freeze branding. Also what all else are you doing to the calves,,, shots ect? You can really run a bunch of them through in a short time that is really impressive.. 8)

 

[rainie]

I'm with Tap, the thickness and uniformity of your calves is exceptional. The key word being uniformity as this is hard to achieve. Soap, are these straight angus calves or a cross? Do your cows have a similar genetic background as well as your bulls to achieve this uniformity? What bloodlines? You've also got to be proud of your crew. Looks like everyone can do everyone elses job and that really speeds things up. Good pics.

 

[Soapweed]

One question. Your wonderful spearhead brand is a good one, but to me it looks like you're sure putting it on fairly large on those calves. Any particular reason? Sorta looks like the irons that you'd use for mature animals. Not trying to punch holes in the proud signature of your ranch, just quizzin' you a little.

HP

The brand really isn't as "big" as it appears on that one calf. The calf is turning away so its front-end looks small in comparison. I think it is somewhat of an optical illusion, but the brand showed up exceptionally well in that picture so I emphasized this in the title.

Each of the two bars that form the front of the "spearhead" measure 3 and 3/4 inches. The horizontal "shaft" of the spearhead measures 4 and 1/2 inches. Altogether the brand is five inches high and six and 1/2 inches long. It is basically about the size of a person's hand, which I think is about right for a calf a couple months old. On any boughten mature cattle, we use this same sized brand, only it is usually put on with an electric iron. We can usuallly tell at a glance if a critter is home-raised or purchased, because the brand appears smaller on purchased animals.

 

[Soapweed]

Thanks for another round of great pic's. Seeing you brand brings a couple question to mind, do you have to use hot iron or is freeze branding recognized just the same for the brand inspection ID? Around here few brand and the ones that do I would guess that about 80-90% of them use freeze branding. Also what all else are you doing to the calves,,, shots ect? You can really run a bunch of them through in a short time that is really impressive.. 8)

I am not sure if a freeze brand is "legal" for ownership in Nebraska, or not. No one in this area uses them, except occasionally on a horse. The only freeze branding done in these parts is number branding for individual identification within a herd. Any snow on a critter's back tends to make the freeze number brands "unreadable." :wink:

Along with the brand, which is put on with "one iron," our calves get Bovi-Shield Gold 5, Ultrachoice 7, and a Synovex C implant. We castrate the bulls and brand off any horns (probably less than 2% of our calves).

 

[Soapweed]

I'm with Tap, the thickness and uniformity of your calves is exceptional. The key word being uniformity as this is hard to achieve. Soap, are these straight angus calves or a cross? Do your cows have a similar genetic background as well as your bulls to achieve this uniformity? What bloodlines? You've also got to be proud of your crew. Looks like everyone can do everyone elses job and that really speeds things up. Good pics.

Our calves anymore are basically Angus, but some of our cows have a tad bit of Gelbvieh back a few generations. I don't pay a lot of attention to bloodlines. I do like to buy bulls in volume (at inexpensive prices :wink: ) that look similar, and they are probably related to each other when this occurs.

And yes, I am very proud of our crew. We all tend to work as a team to get a job done as easily and efficiently as possible.

I know my cousin likes good stories about "wrecks," :wink: but it is my goal to accomplish our tasks without any wrecks if at all possible.

 

[Texan]

I have to agree with everyone else, Soapweed - that's a slick working crew. It's always nice to see how everybody else does things. Thanks for sharing your pics.

I was thinking about switching to a Pfizer blackleg for a branding shot, but I've just worried about getting enough protection since I wouldn't booster it until weaning. I assume you don't booster your's until precon shots - do you feel like you get good immunity from that Ultra Choice 7 without a booster?

 

[CattleArmy]

A rancher I know freeze branded the cows numbers on them instead of tagging. He is a bull producer. One thing the number doesn't get lost that way.

 

[Soapweed]

I was thinking about switching to a Pfizer blackleg for a branding shot, but I've just worried about getting enough protection since I wouldn't booster it until weaning. I assume you don't booster your's until precon shots - do you feel like you get good immunity from that Ultra Choice 7 without a booster?

We have had good luck using Ultra Choice 7 in the past. I would have to give the Pfizer company high marks, because their products have been successful for us. By using their preventative vaccines, sickness in our calves has been almost non-existent.

 

[Cal]

Soap, your time is getting pretty impressive. I'm gonna have to tell the women running our Cow Country table to get the lead out 'cause you're gaining on them.

 

[GLA]

Could you send some close up pictures of the calf trap and just how it should work?