Thursday, May 7, 2009

Branding "party"

















On Cinco de Mayo we had the opportunity to go to a ranch near town while they were branding the new crop of calves. "Branding" is actually a fairly complex operation, involving elaborate critter management, branding itself, inoculation, dehorning and ear-notching. I avoided the blood-spurting, flesh-flaming pictures!

This is an old ranch, and the old wooden corral fences, the apple trees and the fields stretching toward Point Lookout and the sunset make it a beautiful setting. The cowgirl in the pink cap, looking out through the fence with a calf, is 86! tv

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your shots and the equipment the cowboys use remind me of the days of dehorning cattle....I hated that part of farm life (along with docking lambs tails).

You sure have a variety of things to keep you occupied out that way!

TOM VAUGHAN & SANDY FEUTZ said...

Yeah, I'd been around branding before, but the dehorning ... with flames shooting up from the calf's head ... was a little startling! In truth, though, they don't seem to suffer from the pain long.