Thursday branding, April 30, 2009

[Soapweed]

Another day of branding

Getting them around the corner and into the branding corral

Checking out Goose and me

Brady in the roping pen

Calf loaded and ready to be processed

The tray is for vaccine guns. We use an electric iron and a small portable gas generator. We really like this system. It only takes about a gallon of gas per branding, and the iron heats up very fast after the generator has been started. We keep it under the front of the pickup with a cord running to the back. It is much quieter and more fuel efficient than a propane heater.

Rena ready to turn the calf loose

Dinnertime conversation

Branding footwear, Exhibit A

Branding footwear, Exhibit B

A hand sandwich

By afternoon the wind was howling and affecting our roping. We parked the pickup and trailer on the north side of the branding pen to block the wind. It helped immensely.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

Looks like Kosmo is going to get cheated out of healing calves this spring. :wink:

What's sticking out from the top of the cake truck in the "dinner time conversation"photo?

I see in the rena turning one loose it's not on the truck but a gate post. :???:

 

[Soapweed]

Looks like Kosmo is going to get cheated out of healing calves this spring. :wink:

What's sticking out from the top of the cake truck in the "dinner time conversation"photo?

I see in the rena turning one loose it's not on the truck but a gate post. :???:

Before I leased my dad's ranch in 1994, this was the corral facility where he held his big brandings with lots of neighbors helping. He always had registered Herefords and kept bulls from them. My sisters ran Red Angus cows. Anyway, the arm sticking out from the gate post used to have electricity to it. The arm swiveled and had a cord coming from the end. Electric branding irons were used on that end of the corral. Certain ropers were designated to rope the Hereford calves and the Red Angus calves, both of which also had special tags. Different brands were used with the electric irons than were used for the common commercial cattle which were branded with regular branding irons heated with a wood fire in those days.

 

[leanin' H]

I am amazed that in a picture with Rena in it, BMR noticed background stuff! :wink:

 

[gcreekrch]

Looks like a sunny day in the sandhills, we woke up to two inches of wet snow. Very thankful our yearlings went to the saleyard yesterday as it may be a month before a liner will get in here again.
Do you not do a pre-breeding, 4 or 5 way vaccination on your cowherd? Just noticed that you aren't hauling a runway or squeeze with you.

 

[Soapweed]

Looks like a sunny day in the sandhills, we woke up to two inches of wet snow. Very thankful our yearlings went to the saleyard yesterday as it may be a month before a liner will get in here again.
Do you not do a pre-breeding, 4 or 5 way vaccination on your cowherd? Just noticed that you aren't hauling a runway or squeeze with you.

With the Pfizer product Bova-shield Gold FPVL-5 (this stands for fetal protection vibrio lepto), cows are supposed to only need it once in the fall after they are on the program. It is such a hassle giving the cows a shot now at branding time, that we have never done it. Anyway, it boils down to the fact that our younger cows are "on the program" with a pre-breeding vaccination as yearling heifers, so they just need an update in the fall. Our older cows are on the honor system, because you are not supposed to give this shot to pregnant females as there is a chance it could cause them to abort. We do give the older cows a regular vibrio-lepto shot at preg-checking time in the fall.

 

[gcreekrch]

I agree with you about the hassle, just am not comforable giving it to the pregnant cows. We also use Gold FP-5 it is a good product.

 

[Soapweed]

Gcreekrch, have you ever heard of a man by the name of Oliver (Richard) Gardner? His obituary is in the latest Sheridan County Journal Star, published in Gordon, Nebraska. He died in Fort St. John, Brititsh Columbia, where he was a retired rancher. He had Sandhills roots, and his sister, Viola Cady, still lives in this area.

 

[gcreekrch]

Gcreekrch, have you ever heard of a man by the name of Oliver (Richard) Gardner? His obituary is in the latest Sheridan County Journal Star, published in Gordon, Nebraska. He died in Fort St. John, Brititsh Columbia, where he was a retired rancher. He had Sandhills roots, and his sister, Viola Cady, still lives in this area.

Sorry Soapweed, haven't heard of him. Ft St John is Silver's country and is a long 12-13 hr drive from here. One part of BC I haven't been to yet.
We lost an old friend to a tragic accident a week ago.
Jack Lozier grew up around Burns Oregon and lived in the Williams Lake are since the early 60's. He sold his ranch about ten years ago and retired to a 1/4 section stump farm at Quesnel.
He was burning some grass and got caught in the fire somehow.he was sent to the burn unit in Vancouver with 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree burns all over his body. After 2 days on life support the family requested that he be taken off and let go.

 

[Soapweed]

Gcreekrch, have you ever heard of a man by the name of Oliver (Richard) Gardner? His obituary is in the latest Sheridan County Journal Star, published in Gordon, Nebraska. He died in Fort St. John, Brititsh Columbia, where he was a retired rancher. He had Sandhills roots, and his sister, Viola Cady, still lives in this area.

Sorry Soapweed, haven't heard of him. Ft St John is Silver's country and is a long 12-13 hr drive from here. One part of BC I haven't been to yet.
We lost an old friend to a tragic accident a week ago.
Jack Lozier grew up around Burns Oregon and lived in the Williams Lake are since the early 60's. He sold his ranch about ten years ago and retired to a 1/4 section stump farm at Quesnel.
He was burning some grass and got caught in the fire somehow.he was sent to the burn unit in Vancouver with 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree burns all over his body. After 2 days on life support the family requested that he be taken off and let go.

That is a terrible tradedy.

There were some Loziers that had the Box R Ranch at Cora, Wyoming, near Pinedale. I almost went to work for them in 1970, but decided to get a job with the Moose Head Ranch in Jackson Hole instead.

 

[Kosmo]

Big Muddy rancher wrote:

Looks like Kosmo is going to get cheated out of healing calves this spring.

What's sticking out from the top of the cake truck in the "dinner time conversation"photo?

I see in the rena turning one loose it's not on the truck but a gate post.

I agree Big Muddy, I am getting the short end of the rope! Hopefully there are still a few calves left when I am home and graduated next week. I have been pretty busy on the weekends and I haven't really had a good opportunity to drive 6 hours home to help brand...

 

[Cedarcreek]

I've been admiring your calf holding set up but I wonder how it would work for a 2 iron shoulder brand. Its fairly easy to put on if the calf is laying flat when 2 wrestlers are holding the calf. Looks like a good way to get calves done without a big crew and the hassles that go with it.

 

[Soapweed]

I've been admiring your calf holding set up but I wonder how it would work for a 2 iron shoulder brand. Its fairly easy to put on if the calf is laying flat when 2 wrestlers are holding the calf. Looks like a good way to get calves done without a big crew and the hassles that go with it.

I'll bet you could get your two iron brand rigged up so it could be a "one iron" brand. You could grab the tail and put your foot on the calf's neck to further immobilize him, and I think the system would still work well.

 

[movin' on]

I am amazed that in a picture with Rena in it, BMR noticed background stuff! :wink:

10-4 on that!

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

I am amazed that in a picture with Rena in it, BMR noticed background stuff! :wink:

10-4 on that!

Stare at it long enough and a few things creep into the picture. :shock:

 

[gcreekrch]

Gcreekrch, have you ever heard of a man by the name of Oliver (Richard) Gardner? His obituary is in the latest Sheridan County Journal Star, published in Gordon, Nebraska. He died in Fort St. John, Brititsh Columbia, where he was a retired rancher. He had Sandhills roots, and his sister, Viola Cady, still lives in this area.

Sorry Soapweed, haven't heard of him. Ft St John is Silver's country and is a long 12-13 hr drive from here. One part of BC I haven't been to yet.
We lost an old friend to a tragic accident a week ago.
Jack Lozier grew up around Burns Oregon and lived in the Williams Lake are since the early 60's. He sold his ranch about ten years ago and retired to a 1/4 section stump farm at Quesnel.
He was burning some grass and got caught in the fire somehow.he was sent to the burn unit in Vancouver with 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree burns all over his body. After 2 days on life support the family requested that he be taken off and let go.

That is a terrible tradedy.

There were some Loziers that had the Box R Ranch at Cora, Wyoming, near Pinedale. I almost went to work for them in 1970, but decided to get a job with the Moose Head Ranch in Jackson Hole instead.

Soapweed, I stand corrected. One of the lurkers on here let me know that Jack was part of the family from Cora, Wyoming. I only remember him telling stories of Oregon where he ranched and assumed he had grown up there.

 

[Silver]

Gcreekrch, have you ever heard of a man by the name of Oliver (Richard) Gardner? His obituary is in the latest Sheridan County Journal Star, published in Gordon, Nebraska. He died in Fort St. John, Brititsh Columbia, where he was a retired rancher. He had Sandhills roots, and his sister, Viola Cady, still lives in this area.

I knew Dick Gardner a little. He was a neighbour 'just over the hill' to the east of us. I have a horse from a stud of his, actually.
He had a good eye for horses, was a good neighbour to those he liked, and tended to be quite outspoken.