June 24, 2015 - Branding....one of our main ranch activities in the spring! Guests, family and friends gather with us in the springtime to brand all the baby calves that were born over the winter months. This is not only a time where there is much work to be done, but also a time to get together and enjoy the nice weather and have some fun. In the area that we live, branding is like a holiday that everyone looks forward to. Funny how in our neck of the woods, our work is our fun!
In this first blog post, we are going to share a little on how we go about branding the over 1000 head of baby calves we have.
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| 2014 Kara Creek Branding Crew - Kokesh Ranch |
1. Have a good crew. Though this picture (right) is from 2014, this reflects the kind of crew needed at branding time. At Kara Creek, we break our brandings into many brandings to better accommodate how we get cattle out to summer pasture, but even a small branding needs some good help! At any time, we usually brand between 50 to 100 head of calves. The guests that come visit us in the summer time, also get to actively participate in the brandings and become part to the crew as well!
2. Get some good ropers! At Kara Creek, we do things the traditional way and rope and drag each calf to the fire. The calves are in a large branding pen and 2 - 3 ropers enter at a time to rope the calf by both back feet and drag to the fire.
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| Luc Roping at Kara Creek Branding |
In the summer time, many people get the opportunity to try out roping. And many of our guests have become great ropers from all the practice they get! At the ranch, we spend a lot of time getting our horses trained on the branding pen and have ended up with quite a few go-to horses at branding time!
3. Make sure you have some calf wrestlers. Once the calves are roped and the roper begins the drag them out, two people will wrestle the calf and hold it down. Now this isn't a typically wrestling match, but more of an art. Everyone that wrestles learns the appropriate way and getting the calf down can be done fairly effortlessly.
The majority of the time, the primary wrestlers are the "youngsters" as when you age, you can get promoted to other jobs, such as giving shots, roping, branding or implanting the calves. Once the calf is on it's side, one person holds their head and one person holds their feet while the necessary tasks are done.
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| Calf wrestling at Kara Creek branding at Snook Ranch |
4. Have fun! After the branding, the tradition is to have a good traditional dinner of grilled burgers, or other BBQ along with a variety of salads and great desserts.
After a long winter, friends and neighbors use this time as a social event and get caught up with each other!
We are very fortunate to have had such a great group this spring to help us get all the calves branded and are already looking forward to next year! Until next week....
