Hi all,
Here is a new B-i-L video about this years “marking and branding” at the Holiday Ranch.
If you have a soft spot for poor little cow critters undergoing necessary treatment please
don’t watch this video.
Thanks for taking a look.
Rick
Nicely done! Is your brother-in-law a professional videographer?
Interesting. Neat to see the “real thing” at work … and not just a Hollywood version.
On the other hand, while I’m a fan of “medium rare” those do seem a bit undercooked, don’t you think? 
Matthew (OV)
Hi Ray,
No, he is, in my opinion, just a very talented amateur.
Rick
Great video.
As someone who has been born and raised and has a little still in the family ranch I say this is a great video. He did an excellent job.
A couple of comments:
The rock fences are real neat, you usually dont see that in the US. Definately cuts down on having to go fix fence. Believe me, it was never a fun task to have to go do.
The branding method was very similar to what we do. The difference, we have our ropers “heal” the calf. This means he ropes the back legs. Then he drags it out of the round pen we have setup. Then a couple of wranglers pull the calf to the ground and attach the front legs to another rope attached to an inner tube that is attached to a stake pounded in the ground. If you noticed they took the rops off the neck of the calf and moved it to the front legs so the roper could stretch out the calf. The healing is better because your dragging the calf backward so he isnt running around like you saw in the movie. Also using the inner tube method cuts down on the amount of ropers needed. Plus you can run many at a time. We usually run four stations at once, which allows us to brand about 250 calves in about 3-4 hours.
As far as the branding goes, it only hurts them for a small amount of time. They have actually done studies on this because of poeple like PETA trying to keep ranchers from branding their calves. You ever seen real rawhide? It is very thick, this hide keeps the animal protected. It feels the brand for about 30 secs to a minute and that is about it. Now if you dont know what you are doing and you can go too deep and hurt your calf, but that dont happen that often. Remember this is your livelihood and mistreating your stock will mean money lost. The castrating the bulls makes the calf a steer. These are where you get most of your meat from. You dont need a lot of Bulls and so you castrate them, raise them and then slaughter them for beef. Obviously not a good feeling to loose your “family jewels” but again the pain receptors of a cow mean they dont feel it very long, unless not done properly.
Overall a good video and reminds me its branding season. Actually I got branding at the family ranch on Saturday.
Oh by the way, the reason we brand is it is a definate and almost foolproof way to keep people from stealing your livestock. You cant take a brand off, it is permanent.
Another tidbit about branding, you have to have your brand registered with the state brand board in order to sell your cattle. You pick a simbol and/or letter and the location of the brand. There are 4 locations on the cow where you can put a brand. Middle of the body left or right side or rear hind quarter left or right side. You cant seel or slaughter a cow “legally” until it has been brand inspected. This is to ensure that the cattle was not stolen. This has worked for well over 100 years and still works great.
You put on a Brand-Aid?
Hey, Jake, did you help with branding or did you get ‘branded’, I did not quite get that. I was a close observer one time long long ago at that whole operation. The main problem was we did not have any trees to hide under to get out of the sun! Inertesting vedio.
Paul
Nope, just helped.
Hi Jake,
Good explanations and additional information. Thank you.
I spent a good part of my younger years working cattle ranches and dairy ranches that’s why I don’t
go to close to horses or cows anymore, just doesn’t have much appeal.
You have to remember/know that this marking and branding session was done by mostly volunteer help and as such it was as much “play day” as it was a work day. You must notice that they tried to bring them in heel first
as often as possible. I think they had so much help horseback and on the ground that they were in each others way as often as not.
I agree with you completely about using a pegged stretcher and a single heeler much less complicated and easier, unless your the thrower.
Thanks
Rick