Wyoming Wind
Well-known member
I finally have a few minutes to post some pictures from our first branding back on the 5th of May. The morning started out with a fresh inch of snow on the ground--we were to start gathering the meadows at 9am but waited a good hour waiting on one ominous cloud to pass. We did not want to gather only to have to postpone our branding till the next day due to wet calves. Luckily the storm broke and our day started.
We had a good 60 friends show up to help: 5 ropers, 10 or so sets of wrestlers, and the rest were vaccinators, branders, ear markers, castrators, ID ear taggers, and a few running around checking for lost ear tags, bad belly buttons, etc. Several young kids follow around with the "nut bucket" gathering the Rocky Mt. oysters and some kids follow around the vaccinators with markers identifying for the wrestlers that they got their shots and so the ropers can see the marks while a horseback. And of course several on lookers!
My almost 2 year old blonde boy and his best buddy stood at the sidelines watching with interest and had several conversations (understandable by only them) about how they will be a great calf wrestling pair in a few years.
"I'll get the head and you and grab the hind legs, kay?"
"Or maybe we will get to have an important job like roping...I wonder what we are having for lunch today?"
Grandpa decided to wrestle with my oldest 11 year old nephew who is much improved from last year; he is turning into a great hand!
Grandma earmarked...the hardest thing for the wrestler to do is grabbing the calf by the nose and lifting the ear to be notched while holding the calf down. A necessity in this country even with a good brand. We can see our ear mark from a good distance if done right.
Organized chaos
A neighbor on my favorite horse to watch in the branding pen...half draft and as quiet as can be.
The end result...
We have about 25 cows remaining to calve and we are going to have all cows kicked out (but the heavies) on spring pasture by the end of this week. We have to cross Horse Creek to get to one section and with the cold snowy weather we have had the past few days the creek is very low and we are going to run them across this afternoon. In years past we recruit loads of good ropers who park on either side of the high water just to rope drowning/floating calves as they float by. Scary to watch but with good help we have always gotten lucky results. It will be very nice not to have to worry about it this year! We have gotten our much needed moisture the past few days in the form of snow---now we need it to warm up and the grass will come!
We had a good 60 friends show up to help: 5 ropers, 10 or so sets of wrestlers, and the rest were vaccinators, branders, ear markers, castrators, ID ear taggers, and a few running around checking for lost ear tags, bad belly buttons, etc. Several young kids follow around with the "nut bucket" gathering the Rocky Mt. oysters and some kids follow around the vaccinators with markers identifying for the wrestlers that they got their shots and so the ropers can see the marks while a horseback. And of course several on lookers!
My almost 2 year old blonde boy and his best buddy stood at the sidelines watching with interest and had several conversations (understandable by only them) about how they will be a great calf wrestling pair in a few years.
"I'll get the head and you and grab the hind legs, kay?"
"Or maybe we will get to have an important job like roping...I wonder what we are having for lunch today?"
Grandpa decided to wrestle with my oldest 11 year old nephew who is much improved from last year; he is turning into a great hand!
Grandma earmarked...the hardest thing for the wrestler to do is grabbing the calf by the nose and lifting the ear to be notched while holding the calf down. A necessity in this country even with a good brand. We can see our ear mark from a good distance if done right.
Organized chaos
A neighbor on my favorite horse to watch in the branding pen...half draft and as quiet as can be.
The end result...
We have about 25 cows remaining to calve and we are going to have all cows kicked out (but the heavies) on spring pasture by the end of this week. We have to cross Horse Creek to get to one section and with the cold snowy weather we have had the past few days the creek is very low and we are going to run them across this afternoon. In years past we recruit loads of good ropers who park on either side of the high water just to rope drowning/floating calves as they float by. Scary to watch but with good help we have always gotten lucky results. It will be very nice not to have to worry about it this year! We have gotten our much needed moisture the past few days in the form of snow---now we need it to warm up and the grass will come!