Brandin' the Calves!

Today, I knew I was home. We went out to brand some of my grandpa's calves! It was a pretty good morning and we got a lot of calves branded, banded (for those that know what that is ... there are no pictures!), and ear-tagged! Its quite an adventure and I'm pretty sure one that not many people get to undertake! So I've documented the ENTIRE EXPERIENCE for you ---- PLEASE BE WARNED. As many of you know there is a Adult Content Warning to get in here, but my warning for this post is that this one may not be suitable for animal-lovers. It's a little graphic if you've never seen it before!

I've followed this little cow through the process -- I've named her May-belle!

Step 1: Divide the cows! This actually turned out to be a little bit of a challenge because my grandpa had less than medicore help -- Todd and myself --- so there was quite the learning curve. There was also a difference of opinion between the farmer of more than 50 years and my dad so that took a few minutes to correct as well!

Step 2: Load the cows into the shoot! This was mostly Todd's job, and he was kicked a couple of times by some the feisty cows! He toughed it out though, and ended up being a big help!

Step 3: Vaccinate! My dad tried to pass this job off to me, but I refused. I know that's terrible, but just the thought of sticking a needle into the cow was too much! I'm okay watching all this, but actually doing it was an ENTIRELY different thing! So I settled for filling the syringe, and made my dad do the sticking the needle in part.

Step 4: Notch off the ears. I'm not sure why this is done, but it is done. And it's gross. I did learn however that I have nail polish that EXACTLY matches cows blood... if anybody's interested! My dad did this part as well.

Step 5: Banding ... You do this to make little boy cows ... little it cows. I did not take any pictures of the de-manning of the cows however so I'll let you use your imagination!

Step 6: BRANDING! This part is pretty terrible, but necessary to make sure your cows stay your cows even if they're lost or anything. It involves taking a hot piece of metal and sticking it on the side of the cow and searing the brand onto their skin. It smells terrible, and must hurt even more. I'm not such a fan of watching, but it has to be done. Todd would hold the front leg to prevent it from kicking(?) and my dad would do the branding. The worst part is when they move around and have to be stuck a couple of times to make sure the brand is really put on.

The final product:

Step 7: FREEDOM! We release the cows to their mommas and comfort! A few were pretty dazed but little May-belle just ran as fast as she could!

A few memorable side stories. Todd was not a fan of the feisty cows. There was one cow in particular that Todd disliked. His quote about the cow: "It kicked me, it head-butted me, and then it crapped on the table." It was very funny how he said it.

My dad was angry when Todd and I accidently let a cow escape (although how we were supposed to stop it when we looked over just in time to see its little legs kick through the fence I'm not real sure). So instead of waiting till we were done with everything else he just went after the cow. He was walking real slowly up to the calf as it was nursing. Then he lunged for the cow out of NO WHERE! He grabbed for it and came up with the calf's back leg, he then preceded to drag the calf the 100 yards back to the coral. The momma cow followed almost the whole way; she seemed pretty upset. It was really sad to watch... I didn't like that part at all.

Please note the conquered cows in the background!

Over all it was a pretty good day, and I'm glad we were able to help!

I thought I would also add this, because it makes me laugh. My dad found a cowboy hat, and was wearing it .. maybe to cowboy up before our big event?