February can be a very wet and cold month for Yolo County, but this week has been a joy.
The hills are green and lush, the almond blossoms will soon start budding. Hopefully we will have this kind of weather for the Almond Blossom Festival in a few weeks. Springtime also brings a new crop of calves that need to be branded and marked. This is one of my favorite times of the year. With my small herd, it only take a few hours to vaccinate all my cows and brand the calves. I hope I get invited to a few of the larger brandings in my area, or out of my area for that matter.
It has been a while since I had a chance to go to a large branding. I usually start out on the ground crew flanking calves or castrating them just to let the owner or foreman know that I worked cattle before. I have spent the whole day on the ground crew and never complained, it is dirty tiring work, but I love it. I have been to a few brandings where no one wants to be on the ground, everyone wants to rope. This can be a headache and lead to a few hurt feelings. The last thing most cattleman want is a bunch of people with little experience and green horses chasing their stock around the corrals putting a lot of stress on them. This can also lead to very dangerous situations when a 300 pound calf on one end of the rope is going one way, and a bucking (usually riderless) horse is going another. It will almost certainly end up with one or both crashing into the ground crew. It gets a little too western for my tastes.
There usually is a hierarchy to the branding pen. The most experienced hands will start the roping and after they get a good sweat going they will ask someone they know if they want a chance and so on until they get to the people who they don't know and have been invited. You can get a good read on the ability of a cowboy, or cowgirl, by their turnout. If they have a nylon headstall and a brand new rope, watch out. I have also seen a few cowboys show up with all the right gear, a 60' rope and wheelbarrow full of cowpunching stories that couldn't rope a mailbox from 10 feet away.
So I guess I'll get my horse shod and start throwing some loops from my horse, just to make sure he hasn't forgotten what a rope is. I just hope I have someplace to go.
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Greetings from the Big Sky! Nice place you have here. Our calving has just commenced - a bit prematurely - but that's okay. Calving is my favorite time of year, even if it decides to go to thirty below and we have to hustle with the calves & the calf warmer! Fortunately, when that happens - it usually isn't for long.
Some other differences - we don't shoe our horses, or use them at branding time in May. We're more farmers than ranchers - we get ours done with a crew of three. Husband, father-in-law and me. We use a calf table. Less stress on us & the calvies.
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