Another Shot Of Branding
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This week I assisted with gathering the late calving cows and bringing them to the South Butte corral. The cows we gathered have their calves later than the others so are separated from the main herd. There were about 70 pairs we brought to the corral and branded the calves the next day. Branding is important because it shows ownership of the cattle from a distance, the calves also get vaccinations during this time and the bull calves get banded. With the branding process it also allows the rancher to see any calves that are sick and give them medications to heal. There are many ways to brand calves, and my hosts like to use a horse and rider to rope the calf and drag it over to the branding area, where a ground team is waiting to give vaccinations, the brand, and ear tag the calf.
I got to try each role in the branding pen this week. I started with vaccinations which included 2 shots under the skin and a nasal spray. The shots protect against 7 different diseases, and an pneumonia vaccine. My host likes to give an pneumonia vaccine two ways, one as a shot and one as a nasal spray. The nasal spray takes effect immediately while the shot will protect the calf over a longer period of time. By doing this method, he does not have many sick calves after they get their vaccinations. The next role I got to try was banding the bull calves. This process was to make the bull calves into steers by putting a tight rubber band around the calf’s testicles. Some ranchers prefer to snip the testicles off with a knife at the time of branding, while others like using bands. The band will cut off circulation to the testicles and they will fall off after a few days, without the calf even noticing. I also learned how to administer an ear tag to the calves. He showed me the correct placement of the tag so that the ear is not affected in the future. The tag needs to be in the middle of the ear between the two major veins, this way when inserted the calf doesn’t bleed and it won’t cause the ear to fold over.
Finally, I got to rope the calves and drag them to the ground crew. This is my favorite job as I used to team rope in high school and have loved roping since. It was very different roping the heels of the calves than roping a full-grown steer by the horns, but it was just as fun. Others were also roping and were kind enough to give me pointers to help me catch a calf. It didn’t take long, and I got the technique figured out. It is important to drag the calf once securing it to keep the rope tight which prevents the calf from kicking the rope off. It also requires a lot of horsemanship skills as you have to make sure the rope is not getting tangled in your horse’s feet and making sure the horse is comfortable with the chaos around him.
I wondered about the use of the implant on the steer calves. He explained to me that it is a natural hormone that gives the calves a growth boost and helps them become bigger. It is not harmful to the calf in any way and will not affect the butchering process of the steer later, however I questioned why he wouldn’t use it on the heifer calves as well. It acts the same on the heifers and gives them a growth boost without affecting them later in life. I could understand not using it in possible replacement heifers, but why not use it in the heifers that will be spayed later for sale purposes? I plan to ask him if he uses the implant on the spayed heifers after their spay to ensure more growth.
Overall, it was a great week and I learned a lot about the different branding processes, and having a great time while I was at it! I hope to get to go to other rancher’s brandings in the future to compare the way we did things to others. I also plan to talk to my hosts about the implants to get a better understanding of them, and I hope I am still here when they spay the heifers so I can be apart of that experience as well.
Submitted by: Ronnie Owens
Edits by: GrowinG Internship Team
