We have lots of baby calves to brand as we move from spring to summer. This involves gathering friends, family and ranchhands, as well as cows and calves. A lot of moving parts have to come together. It takes phone calls, folks with horsetrailers and horses, and sometimes maps, to make it all happen. This year, we’ve put together several brandings, with locations from the high desert (sagebrush steppe) to a spot in the Routt Forest.Here’s some pics from this summer’s brandings.
bringing in the calves at Dudley Creek
branding crew at Lower Powder Springs
wrestling calves
roping and wrestling
Rhen and Eamon
Siobhan and Eamon
Belle and Tiarnan
Randy, Biscuit and windmill
Ray and Rose helping out
Trevor at branding
Rhen and Liza on the job
cows and calves mothered up at Dudley Reservoir
Tags: branding, calves, cows, Eamon, horses, Rhen, Siobhan, Tiarnan
McCoy bringing in a calf
It’s that time of year again. We have lots of baby calves who need vaccines, brands and earmarks before they head up to the Forest with their mothers. We have a great crew this year. Everyone knows how to work together to minimize stress on both cattle and people.
calves gathered in the Elephant Corral
Bubba, Tiarnan and McCoy bringing in the calves
Siobhan at the ready
Rhen on the water tank
Bubba and McCoy
branding crew
McCoy and Eamon
Tags: branding, Bubba, calves, cows, Eamon, McCoy, Rhen, Siobhan, Tiarnan
bringing in the cows and calves
The McCullem Place is part of our Powder Wash ranch west of Baggs. It serves as spring pasture for some of the cows and calves. The homestead era headquarters is mostly gone, so we set up portable corrals, brought in the cows and calves, and processed the calves. These are some of the Akaushi-cross calves so we also had to take a snip of ear to check their bloodlines. We built an old-fashioned fire to heat the branding irons. We had another great crew of family, friends and employees.
Eamon and McCoy
cows and calves in corral
crew getting ready
Karen, Edgar and Eamon
Juan with branding fire
McCoy and Aspen
Tags: branding, calves, cows, Eamon, Edgar, Juan, Karen, McCoy, McCullem Place
Rhen mounting
It’s branding time! We have lots of baby calves who need brands, eartags and vaccine so that they can be ready to head to the National Forest next month with their mamas. We have a great crew this year, which includes a lot of home-grown child labor. Sheep Mountain is a pasture which we graze spring and fall. Sheep Mountain itself is an extinct volcano which has provided us with rich soil and great pasture.
hard-working crew
Eamon, Rhen, Mike and Karen
Meghan and Mike Buchanan
Rhen bringing in calf on Jake
German and Mccoy
Tiarnan on Sarah
Siobhan multi-tasking
Siobhan and Kathryn
Rhen, Megan and Eamon
Tags: branding, cattle, Eamon, German, Karen, McCoy, Megan, Mike, Rhen, Seamus, Sheep Mountain, Tiarnan
Retired chute at the Terrill Corrals
My Dad, George Salisbury, and his cousin Bob Terrill, used to run cattle together in the Powder Wash country. The corrals, north of Powder Wash Camp, are still known as the Terrill Corrals. While the corrals don’t see as much activity as they used to, our family and the Terrills still brand calves in the corrals, with Bob’s son Tim and granddaughter Tate.
Tate. bringing in a calf
Tate and Tiarnan, roping
wrastlin’ crew
Siobhan and Rhen–beware the girl with the knife
Tiarnan, ground crew
Tim (who worked a lot) at the lunch wagon
Tiarnan. Dot and calves
Tate, at the Terrill Corrals
Maeve and Tate
Tags: branding, cattle, Maeve, Powder Wash, Rhen, Tate, Terrill Corrals, Tiarnan, Tim
Bringing in the cows and calves
It finally stopped raining long enough to allow us to brand some calves. Clouds were threatening, but with lots of good help, we got through them. They were, as my Dad used to say, “Big enough to get ahold of.”
cows checking the clouds
Eamon watching Jeff chase the errant cow
Jeff bringing her in
Jeff and Mike watching the calves
Tags: branding, calves, cows, Eamon, Jeff, Mike, Powder Flat
It’s time to brand those calves which have been born this spring. We’ve been branding calves both in the mountains and the desert. We have our good crew of employees, friends and family on hand to help us with this endeavor.
Ready to gather: Cookie, Mike, Eamon and Karen
Siobhan and Dice
Taylor bringing in the cows
Mike and Tiarnan conferring
McCoy on the job
Pat and Cookie have a lot of irons in the fire!
Calves in waiting
Looking for the branding crew
Rhen and McCoy at work
David and Joe
Tags: branding, calves, Cookie, cows, Eamon, Karen, Lemmons Place, McCoy, Mike, Pat, Powder Wash, Rhen, Siobhan, Taylor, Tiarnan
calves in waiting
Branding season commences. We have most of our baby calves on the ground. We have to pick the right days for branding–after the calves are big enough to not be too stressed, but not so big that they will cause the branding crew too much stress. These calves have reached that “Goldilocks Moment”. In the last few days, we have branded one set of calves on the Home Ranch, and one set of calves in the desert at the Powder Flat Headquarters. We even had a photographer from the Library of Congress, Carol Highsmith, to document the great American branding. As usual, we had child labor on hand.
Nikki roping calves
Mike Buchanan, McCoy and Rhen ready to go to work
Cow and calf–at the ready
Rhen and Mara, on the job
Meanwhile, back at the Powder Flat Ranch…
Nikki holding the calf
Nikki, Megan, Mike Pierce and Jill wrestling a calf
Eamon with the irons
Mike B. and Mike P. branding a calf with help from Kate
Carol taking pictures of Mike B.
Carol with the cows
Tags: branding, calves, Carol Highsmith, cows, Eamon, Home Ranch, Jill, Kate, Mara, Megan, Mike Buchanan, Mike Pierce, Nikki, Powder Flat, Rhen
It’s that time of year. We have lots of calves on the ground, so it’s time to brand, castrate and earmark, so the calves will be ready for the rest of the season hanging out with their Moms and eating green grass.
brand goes on
JO
Brian and Tiarnan–‘rasling crew
Tags: branding, Brian, Tiarnan
Ladder Ranch
