next year's mommy's

[Ranch Mom]

k_ranch bangs vaccinated our heifers last week and there are some pics of our steers too, as we have yet to send them to market. This is just 12 days out from weaning. We are really tickled with our babes this year.
Replacement Hiefers...

Steers for sale :wink:

 

[Soapweed]

They look mighty nice, Ranch Mom. You and k_ranch are doing a great job raising calves, and kids, too, I might add. Keep up the good work.

 

[Jinglebob]

They look mighty nice, Ranch Mom. You and k_ranch are doing a great job raising calves, and kids, too, I might add. Keep up the good work.

I gott'a agree with Soap.

They are not quite my favorite breed of cattle, but they look awful good.

I'll buy some of them steers, if you'll just winter them and then drive them up in the spring.

And carry the note at a real favorable rate of interest. :wink:

I'll bet we could get Saddle Tramp to help drive them up here.

Happy Thanksgiving.

 

[sic 'em reds]

Very nice set of calves. Is that a year brand on the shoulder or your ID brand?

One more question, are those purple z-tags? Are they easy to read when using the ink pen?

 

[Nicky]

Nice calves

 

[Jassy]

Nice looking critters ya got...I too am interested in what you call that brand. Sure don't see many like that on the shoulder...in our country, most are rib or hip brands...It sure stands out!

 

[the_jersey_lilly_2000]

Looks like 06 stacked to me. Year brand's my guess

 

[Ranch Mom]

Thanks Soap :lol:

JB, Wish we could carry any note. :shock: :wink: Thanks just the same. and I don't think Saddle Tramp would help us move anything. He's used to quiet cowboy makin up poem times when he's out on the range. Our crew of wild and wooly varmints could drive him insane. lol :twisted: for sure one of them would adopt him as their new partner and talk his ear off the whole way or they would spend the whole time fighting and crabbing like today on the way to check cows. lol :!:

Sic em, Yep Lilly is right we started putting a year brand on the shoulder of our heifers stacked like that about 3 or 4 years ago. It's really nice when someone like me goes to try to decide how old something is and is fun when you are checking cattle and you can just glance and see if she is young and run down or old and needs to go to town.
Those are Z tags. They are really easy to read. We use the large ones (a little big on a baby calf, but perfect the rest of the time) We have been putting the number on the tags right there in the pasture with the fast dry ztag markers and putting them in the calves for the last couple years, and they haven't faded like the ytex fast dry markers did. But we have decided to go back to ytex for next year. We started using the z's when k_ranch read they made less of a hole and healed better. But after two years, the holes are more than twice as big, you can easily work a ztag out of it's hole with just your fingers. Way more calves are losing their tags and tearing out their ears. When the weather was cold and we tagged, the calves ears bled like crazy, would even bleed easy the next day if bumped, making them freeze off more than we usually experience, didn't seem to matter where in the ear you put the tag or whether it was k_ranch or I that did it. :roll:

Nicky and Jassy Thanks, and as above it is the year brand, we almost had a contest here to name our brand once lol Our brand is on the left hip and is arrow up and arrow down, it doesn't really name well as far as a sounding cool like spear m or cicle h. Here is a pic of it.

 

[ranch hand]

Why bother with the 0 the 6 would be enough to tell the year? When the heifer is 4 and the older cows if you kept them that long would be 14. You can sure tell the difference in 10 years on a cow. :? :???:

 

[Faster horses]

I wondered that as well ranch hand. Plus that brand looks pretty good sized. We put a 6 on the shoulder, but much smaller, and it gets bigger as the cows age. I sure agree with Jassy about it helping to keep track of the different ages of cattle. We missed one year and that can drive you nuts, when you are trying to figure out why there is no year brand. Thennnnn you remember... :wink:

 

[Ranch Mom]

The six may suffice, but you never know. We just sold about 60 cows up to ages 15 & 16 years old. When they last that long it could possibly happen that we could wonder about 10 years age. :? Of course, my paperwork should cover the difference but we are a one iron herd and don't mind if we use the whole side of an animal to identify it. :wink:

We like it to be very visible for quick alley sorting, or horseback from a distance. We have a real problem with people in the area who have no clue how to read a brand and the easier it is to read the more chance we have of getting our stock back- if people know we year brand on shoulder, and have the regular brand on the hip, that is just another help for identification. No one could make it look like a regular brand this way either, as a single number could be added to or altered to fit somebodys ownership brand. If it conflicts with an ownership brand we will switch it up a little (horizontal, vertical, or different location).

Normally they get their preg guard shot and year brand at grass turnout time, so the irons we used are designed for a larger animal. Since we were having them in the nice hydraulic chute last week, we decided to get the brands put on them early. It was either baby calf size or yearling size, so we opted for larger. 8)

 

[L.E. Stevens]

Our brand is on the left hip and is arrow up and arrow down, it doesn't really name well as far as a sounding cool like spear m or cicle h. Here is a pic of it.

A friend in the Billings area has same brand, calls it his place & the brand the "Double Spear"

 

[sic 'em reds]

On my way home to Great Falls last Thanksgiving we passed by some cows that had the herd ID all branded on the left shoulder. They had a four on top, and then three numbers under that. Talk about a bunch of burnt hide on the shoulder!

We use the year brand on the left shoulder at home in Montana, over here I have been tattooing. Mostly because I have to tattoo the registered cows, so I just started doing it on the commercial cows also. I takes a little longer, but we usually only use it if they lose a tag.