Cattle day

A couple days back I spent the afternoon helping Larry at his branding.

Branding is a way to identify cattle, as they may lose their ear tags but a brand is basically forever. Some countries ban branding, but in Canada it is still very much part of production, with brand inspectors frequenting auction barns to double check that the cows/calves being sold, really belong to that producer.

So there are many different ways to brand, depending on how much help you have. A tip-table is suitable if you have just 2 people, or just a few calves. A calf gets chased down an alley, into the headgate that is mounted on a tip-table. The calf is then tipped onto its side where it is now at table height and easy for people to put eartags in, vaccinate, castrate if it is a bull calf, and brand.

The next way would be, if the calves are small enough, to sort them off from their moms in the corral, and then wrestle them to the ground. You need a few more helpers for this: one person grabs a back leg, the other person grabs the flank and flips the calf. The 2 wrestlers then sit on the ground - one at the hind end holding the back leg, one on the neck/shoulder holding a front leg off the ground. A third person then is needed to vaccinate, tag and brand - or if you have more people, one to brand, one to vaccinate and one to tag. This can be tiring and handlers come away a little bit bruised, with the occasional sprain or broken bone from being kicked by calves.

But we were lucky enough to have skilled ropers and lots of help, so the traditional roping the calves branding is what we had.

I helped with the roundup to get the cattle into the branding pen. We had 7 riders, and the cows are used to being moved, as we rotational graze them. Only problem was, the cows had been going North in their rotation, so that's where they expected to go. We had to turn them south and they were a bit confused by it, but ready to move. The roundup was fast paced and my horse Macy loved it!
We got the cows and calves in, and then got set up:
Propane burners set with branding irons to heat up.
Vaccinations drawn into syringes, ready to administer. Tags got numbered and tag pliers loaded.
squirt bottles filled with antiseptic for castration.
Coolers set out on the tailgate with water and drinks for the crew.

We used a couple of 'snares' to catch the calf:
The roper would go into the herd, and rope the back legs of a calf and drag it towards our staging area. One person would be ready with the snare, which is a Y shaped yoke that would fit behind the calf's ears and line up behind his jaw bone. The snare is attached to an old inner tube (for stretch) that is attached to a stake in the ground. As soon as the calf is in reach, the snare is placed over the head and the roper drags until the rope is tight and the calf immobilized. We had a big crew so after the calf is secure, it went as follows:
One person would be castrating if it was a male. One person on the branding irons, one person vaccinating, 2 people on tags - the personal tag and the government radio ID tag. We had 2 ropers going with 2 snares and things were busy for just under 2 hours to do about 80 calves.

calf being dragged, Doug (red shirt) ready with the snare

Branding irons in the foreground

Cow watching calf being dragged

A perfect day for a branding

my horse Macy watching the show after roundup

All in all, it was a fun day spent outside with friends, fellow horsemen and stockmen. The evening rounded off with a campfire and supper for us, the cows and calves released and enjoying some fresh grass.