We trade work with quite a few neighbors/family/friends, so can get a big crew. Calves are in a corral, cows outside and all will remain in the pasture they were gathered from after branding. So....ropers ride into the corral and rope and drag a calf outside to brand on grass. We use a wood fire, are training quite a few pretty young kids to rope, so getting big numbers done fast isn't really the focus. Calves are branded, castrated, injected, turned loose to mother up with the waiting cows. The cows either hurry to get the calf away from the area, or let the calf nurse and sleep a while a few hundred feet from the corral. They are pretty calm and appear not to be bothered much by the experience, once they mother up. We do two bunches which are about two miles apart one day, and a third pasture about 25 miles away another day. Also ride and check them a couple of times within a few days following branding to be sure all are well. They usually are. With five different families on the ranch, getting the right brand on the calf is one of the things they have to be careful about. Dinner is either on site, or about a block away. Gen. five has taken most of the cooking job, though I'm sure they would rather be able to spend all their time helping with the branding. It is a good time, because the work can get done along with the visiting and fun and there are usually a couple of breaks for food and drink besides dinner. An elderly friend from the east end of the state came to watch a few times and marveled at how the work went so smoothly and no one was giving orders. Everyone seemed to know what to do and did it well, which surprised him, given the great age differences and many families that don't work together every day. He said trading work pretty much ended when threshing ended, in his neighborhood. We have had very few accidents, behond a superficial cut or bruise, tho many years ago the kids got to riding calves, and or course, the one who's dad had told him NOT to ride any calves, 'forgot, and got his arm broken! That one was about 50 years ago. A couple of years ago, a very young boy, maybe age 7, got bucked off when his rope got under his horses' tail....and jumped up with a great big grin on his face, with no regrets. There is always a good ground crew guarding the gate to keep unbranded calves in the corral, and giving advice to those little kids, so he learned quite a few things from that incident, and is really a good little hand, participating in ranch rodeo's in the kid bronc riding.
mrj
PS, I forgot to mention we use nordforks to hold the calves because of too few wrestlers. I think we have four or six of them, so can keep things moving along pretty fast. We believe the 'forks are easier on the calves. It seems like having no human hands or scent on them relaxes the calves and they don't struggle or get as scared as when wrestled and held down by humans.
mrj