So I went out this weekend to follow after my cowgirl heart. My friend Jenn, who knows about this cowgirl heart of mine, invited me to go out to her Brother-in-laws families farm out in Rockland, Idaho to brand cattle. This was an opportunity I was not willing to pass up. So naturally I started telling everyone what I was going to do.
Most people just thought I was crazy for being so excited. People told me it stinks and then the cows would pop all over me. whatever. I have changed poppy diapers before. Can't be that different right? They said we'd also be clipping the ears. No big deal. And then I heard about the other part of branding ie castration. Cas-what-on? Well, I guess I will just observe that one, hugh? The farmers call the rubber bands used for this part of the process cheerios. I would not recommend eating them though. But I did actually end up doing the castration on one of the calves. That was good enough for me. I spent the rest of time time branding and helping situate the calves in the stall.
So this is the process that we went through. First we had to go round up all the cows from the field. We brought them up the road about 1/2 mile and into the pen. Then we had the task of separating out the calves from the cows and bulls. This was fun. We were all in the pen trying to basically make the cows run in a circle and getting the cows and bulls to exit the pen while the calves stayed there. Entertaining it was.
Then the calves were loaded into the shoots and stalls. Individually each calf was then brought into the brown stall you see pictured. The head was trapped, the stall closed on them so that they were contained, and then it was tipped on its side. This was done for easier access for castration and branding purposes. The brand looked like a rocking chair. It was pretty cool looking. Then the calf was tipped back upright and the ear was clipped 3 times. This was done so that the cow could be identified by the farmer from the front or from the side/rear of the animal. So clipping and branding have no real functional purpose rather then identification of the calf. Then we let them wander off back into the pen with their mothers.
I really did have a lot of fun rounding up the cows and spending the time out in a beautiful area. Don't get me wrong here, I am not going to quit my day job but I rather enjoyed myself.
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| Clipping the ear |
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| Placing the "Cheerio". Notice the intense concentration. |
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| Branding. It really does stink like burning flesh. |
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| Holding the leg during castration for easier access. |
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| More branding. This was my main job. |
