Branding the Cane & Crutches

Yep, that's what we call our older cows and the ones that might be a little skinny or have another issue when we sort going into winter.
The other day we branded, vaccinated, castrated and de-horned their babies.
It has been a busy, busy week. And more busy weeks to come.
Tomorrow we will start branding the rest of the babies.
Thursday we will be turning the Angus bulls out with the yearling heifers.
The weekend we have to go to a memorial for a friend of Cameron's.
Monday we turn the Hereford bulls out with the cow groups.
And finish up branding.
Yea, my butt is sore from being in the saddle days on end all day. But hey! I LOVE it!!!

A full pen!

 

Cameron getting 7 to go into a holding jug.

 

A baby in the holding jug.

Not bad for a girl with a broken arm!

Sometime the mamas come in the barn to see what's going on.

This mama had twins. And she is caring for both of them. She had a boy and a girl. The girl is what they call a "free martin", meaning she is sterile. Doesn't have a uterus or ovaries. If it was 2 girls, they wouldn't be like that. When you have a boy and a girl, the chromosomes from the boy transfer to the girl and she becomes sterile.

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Good Fences

 

Typical ranch fences around here. Some are 4 wire, some are 5 wire depending on if they are interior fences or exterior.

 

Linking up with http://www.run-a-roundranch.blogspot.com/good fences Thursday.

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Branding and a lunar eclipse....

On Monday we branded our first calf heifers (mamas for the first time) babies.  Gave the babies their vaccines and poured (put bug yuck) the mamas.
A few days prior to branding, we moved the pairs closer to the barn. Moved the baby bulls outta the way. After branding we moved the big bulls up a pasture so the pairs could go north. Then we moved the baby bulls back to their pasture!
We get the pairs in the sorting lot. Then we pair them out on horse as pairs, its a first time experience for these mamas, other then when they leave the calving lot. It went relatively smooth. A few mamas couldn't seem to find their calves and they panicked a bit, but it all worked out.  We put everyone up the alley and separate mamas from babies. This is done on foot. We then run the mamas through the barn to put the pour on on them. Then the babies come into the barn and put in jugs (holding pens) 7 in each jug. Then brought to the calf chute. Given 4 shots, ear marked, de horned if needed, castrate the bull calves and branded. My wrist held up good wielding that branding iron!

Mamas telling the babies I'll be here when your done!

Babies waiting. We breed our first calf heifers to the angus bulls. The rest of the cows get breed to Hereford bulls and then the angus bulls get put in with the cows when we pull them out of the heifers. That's why the heifers babies are black baldies. There wasn't a lot of de horning in this group of calves.

Deer swimming the creek to get the heck outta the way! HA!

Lunar eclipse. I took a nap after branding so I could watch the eclipse. It started out clear, then about halfway through it got overcast and I couldn't get a good picture. It was really cool with the binoculars! But it never did turn red! That's what I wanted to see!

Before the eclipse.

The eclipse.

One of our kitties, Whitey.

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Out Riding.....

We moved the first calf heifers and their babies closer to the barn so we can brand them on Monday.
I don't have any pictures of the calves, mama's or my poor pony who looks like no one loves him! He is shedding so bad, looks like he has mange! ha ha! The horse chiropractor said use the side of a rasp. That removes the hair like you wouldn't believe!

Anyways, the wildflowers are starting to show themselves. The stink daisies are in full bloom. They are actually called Arrowleaf Balsamroot. But, they stink! Such a pretty flower too. The horses love them! The cows, not so much.

We have started to flood irrigate the meadows too. So the strange little shore birds are showing up. They are such an interesting sight to see. They are not afraid of people. You can pretty much go right up to them!

Stink Daisies.

I believe this is a Woodland Star. Very tiny, cute little flowers.

Black Neck Stilt.

I thought this was a Dowitcher. But they don't have the yellow/orange legs. Any ideas what kinda bird?

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Doink!!

We went to drive through the cows to make sure everyone was OK. They were. Well, except the pump went out in one of the solar wells. ugh!
Everywhere we went, there were deer. A dozen here, 20 there. None of them had hat racks. Time to go shed hunting. One of my fav things to do!
Saw this group, stopped to watch them, they spotted us and over the fence they went. They are so graceful jumping over. Looks like they are shedding their winter coat.

The Kerlew are back also. Saw about 8 pairs. They are a shore bird that come here from I don't know where. And nest in the middle of nowhere. They are very skittish. Its hard to get a good picture of them.

Who can resist cow kisses when they come from your 10 year old bottle baby! This is Nerdly and Cameron. The nerd's mama died right after having her. We bottle fed her and she grew up into a cow. If she is in ear shot or sees you, here she comes for some lovin'.

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