The first branding of the season for Grant Ranch is officially under our belts as on Friday we were able to to process our first group of calves. Our first time calvers finished calving a few weeks ago and their calves were finally looking big enough to be able to bear the cross bar brand. On Thursday when the rain couldn’t decide whether or not to stay throughout the day, panels were hauled out and set up. When Friday morning rolled around the branding checklist was brought out and everything needed was collected, thrown in trucks, and taken to site.
Brands are used to identify who the animal belongs to. Unlike eartags, they are permanent and will remain on the animal indefinitely. They are done either by freeze branding or hot branding, we hot brand with an electric iron, which means it is plugged in to a generator and runs off of that.
It’s a team effort to get everything set up the morning of branding and while all our panels were out and ready there were still a number of things that needed to be arranged before the fun could begin. The corral system, laneway, and tip table weren’t quite ready by the time the crew showed up in the morning, but we ensured that it was set up as quick as we could manage.
As the panels were put in the same field that the cattle were grazing it meant that we didn’t have to move them far to pen them, but everything still needed to be moved to the corrals to start our first step: sorting. Sorting always feels like the longest part of the day but with our pairs cooperating well, some encouragement allowed them to be separated.
It was easy to fall into a smooth and effective routine as we got used to the rhythm of how we worked together. What makes a well oiled team is knowing how each part of the machine operates and when you figure it out, everything works efficiently.
By noon we had gotten through around 55 calves and called for a short lunch break. We didn’t sit around for too long as we decided to kick out our first batch of branded calves with their moms. The way we had things set up were the heifers in a roped off area and the turbo rope happened to be the perfect height for a bunch of worked up calves to run right under … which is exactly what they did when we let them out. There was no way we were going to get all of them back so plans were altered as we took down the wire and let the heifers find their babies.
As good as the day went, there were still a couple of minor hiccups. As our heifers start calving before the cows, their calves are older and therefore some are pretty big. In an attempt to turn one of the calves down the laneway and push it up, the calf managed to slip its head between the pusher’s legs and make a break for it. The calf, however, did not take into consideration its size and once its shoulders were through our dear pusher’s legs, he ended up getting a little bit of a ride.
Whenever we would have a bull calf on the tip table I would come over and hold a leg to help get the castration ring on and it would normally go pretty smoothly. However, this time getting the ring on managed to be a bit difficult, so I was requested to hold onto the leg with one arm and lean over to assist. As soon as I leaned over the bull calf figured it was the perfect time to squirm and kick … right into my sternum. The show must go on, so obviously the ring got on properly but I was not asked to lean over and help after that.
It was shortly after five when the last calf shot out of the tip table and we didn’t waste any time kicking out the second, much larger batch with all the others to let them go and find their moms. The picking up part was the last job of our day as we collected all the tools we used, put panels back where they belonged, and loaded everything back up to haul out.
In the seven-ish hours we branded, we had done over 170 calves. It was a busy yet successful day and it was successful because we knew what we were doing and how to do it together. We still got a few more herds to gather and brand, but it’s nice knowing that the first branding of the season has been completed.
