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Branding Time

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

 

 

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Branding at the McCullem Place

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

 

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Sheep Mountain branding

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

 

 

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Branding at the Terrill Corrals

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

 

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Ready to brand

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

 

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Branding calves in the mountains and on the desert

 

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

 

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Branding Time

calves in waiting

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

Nikki roping calves

Mike Buchanan, McCoy and Rhen ready to go to work

Mike Buchanan, McCoy and Rhen ready to go to work

Cow and calf--at the ready

Cow and calf–at the ready

Rhen and Maura, on the job

Rhen and Mara, on the job

Meanwhile, back at the Powder Flat Ranch...

Meanwhile, back at the Powder Flat Ranch…

Nikki holding the calg

Nikki holding the calf

Mike, Megan and Jill wrestling a calf

Nikki, Megan, Mike Pierce and Jill wrestling a calf

Eamon with the irons

Eamon with the irons

Mike B. and Mike P. branding a calf with help from Kate

Mike B. and Mike P. branding a calf with help from Kate

Caro taking pictures of Mike B.

Carol taking pictures of Mike B.

 

Carol with cows

Carol with the cows

 

 

 
 

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The last branding for 2014

Brittany and Megan roping

Brittany and Megan roping

 
 

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First branding

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

brand goes on

JO brand on calf

JO

Brian and Tiarnan--'rasling crew

Brian and Tiarnan–‘rasling crew

 
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Posted by on April 28, 2014 in Animals, Cattle

 

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Brand those calves!

IMG_0511_5584

Calves looking for their moms.

We have been really shorthanded this spring, so in order to get the calves branded, we had to call on every friend, neighbor and family member that we could rope into helping.  I thought we might have to use literal roping to get a crew together, but in the end, enough folks showed up at each branding to get the job done.  We started in early May, and finished the last branding on June 23rd. Thanks to all who helped us!

branding crew, ready to go;  Dudley Creek

branding crew, ready to go; Dudley Creek

Eamon, Tony and Brian

Eamon, Tony and Brian

Meghan and Brian practicing a marriage encounter

Meghan and Brian practicing a marriage encounter

Raelyn and John vaccinating the calf

Raelyn and John vaccinating the calf

Raelyn and Siobhan, vaccinators extradinaire

Raelyn and Siobhan, vaccinators extraordinaire

Iridescent testicles Young bullhood gone awry Gives lurking smirking cowdogs Their testosterone supply

Iridescent testicles
Young bullhood gone awry
Gives lurking smirking cowdogs
Their testosterone supply

Peanut, Megan, McCoy, Rhen, Tiarnan and Sharon:  training the future branding crew

Peanut, Megan, McCoy, Rhen, Tiarnan and Sharon: training the future branding crew

branding the calf

branding the calf

Eamon with paddle

Tiarnan and McCoy with rope

 

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