We branded 115 calves today, which took most of the afternoon. Saddletramp, Mrs. Soapweed, and I were the crew, and our sophomore son helped later in the day. Until he came along after school, the average age of the other three of us was fifty. We used our new "invention", and used horses to rope and drag the calves until their hind legs were secured about four feet off the ground. Then it was fairly easy to brand, vaccinate (2 shots), Synovex, castrate, and brand horns if needed.
I suppose we could have done the job faster with a calf table, but this way was more fun. It was challenging to always catch both hind feet for the system to work. It's probably not too big of an accomplishment for four people to brand 115 calves in an afternoon. On the other hand, putting things into perspective, if a crew of forty people branded 1150 calves in an afternoon, that would be considered a pretty fair undertaking. Anyway, we had fun and were pleased with the way our invention performed.