Hi I’m Mike.
No matter what the ranch moves on, and a couple of days after branding we find ourselves haying,
and I’m playing catch up.
Today we take a look back at branding, what we did, along with the how and the why.
Coming up on Our Wyoming life
Welcome back, be sure to subscribe if you haven’t and if you have thanks for coming
back and joining us yet again as we explore the ranch life and escape the ordinary.
3 times per week right here on Youtube.
Really quick, coming up this week we have another livestream happening Thursday night
at 7pm mountain time.
I really hope that you can join Erin and I as we get a chance to sit down and answer
your questions and get you up to date on everything happening around here.
It is a busy time.
Branding is behind us now and we have quickly shifted gears and moved into the haying which
we will be featuring in the upcoming weeks and I hope you can join us for that also.
Be sure to hit the that little bell, so that you are notified when a new video comes out
and you don’t miss a thing.
Like I said, branding is behind us for this year.
The next time that we will be sorting cows in October and we live streamed the entire
branding process this year.
All 6 hours and 18 minutes of it and it was a great time to get together with friends
and get some work done, and it was very special for us to have you with us as well.
Of course over that time we answered a lot of questions and we know that some of you
cant sit through the whole thing so that’s why we decided to do this review video.
To take those questions along with footage from branding and get it all down into one
condensed spot, so here we go.
Branding of course starts with bringing in the cows and the calves.
We ended up rescheduling branding three times due to rain.
We cant brand wet calves and today we are going to get after it rain or shine.
Erin and I took a couple of hours to bring all the calves into the lot where they would
rest until the following morning when branding began.
That morning we began by sorting calves off from their moms.
Its loud and seems kind of chaotic but the honest truth is that after the calves were
sorted off, their moms went back out to pasture.
There were a few moms that hung out around the corrals and watched what was going on.
Bellowing occasionally for their calves.
My guess is that those are the moms with younger calves and those younger calves get special
treatment anyway.
The calves will be separated from their mom for a few hours and one by one each calf is
brought through the corrals and into the chute and eventually the calf table where the branding,
vaccination and casteration process begins.
We pride ourselves on making this process as easy as possible on the calves.
Our crew this year was much smaller than last year, which can be a good thing.
Too many people can make the calves more stressed and nervous.
With a smaller crew it usually goes just as easy as it does with a larger crew, sometimes
even better.
Each calf is here today to receive everything they need to be as healthy and safe as possible
for their time here on the ranch.
The procedures we will be preforming include vaccinations, branding and banding or casteration
of the males.
Vaccinations are very important for the cattle and the bottom line of the ranch, sickness
or disease can quickly cause problems within the herd and making sure we have healthy calves
is priority number 1 for us.
We give 3 different vaccines to the calves.
The first is called nasalgen.
Nasalgen aids in the prevention of diseases that can cause upper respiratory infection,
commonly through the dust in the air.
It is not a shot but aspirated nasally and given directly into the calf’s nose so that
they inhale it.
The second is a 7 way vaccine.
This vaccine combats clostridials which are a deadly group of bacteria that produce spores,
improving their ability to survive in harsh environments.
They can also produce fatal toxins, that cause diseases such as blackleg, black quarter,
enterotoxemia and gas gangrene.
They can also carry tetanus.
The last vaccine is Pyramid 5 which provides an increased immunity to a number of other
respiratory diseases found in cattle and it actually helps other vaccines work better
as it contains the MetaStim® adjuvant system to maximize the animal’s response for greater
protection.
Calves after birth receive all these antibodies from their moms and their moms milk, keeping
them safe and healthy but as they begin to wean off of moms milk, that’s where our
vaccinations really come into play.
The antibodies from their moms begin to wane and without vaccinations you may lose calves
once they get exposed to those viruses and bacteria without moms protection.
We also give calf scours bolus to certain calves that are displaying signs of diarrhea.
Most of it is caused out here by bacteria along with new grass, the problem is that
it can cause dehydration and can lead to bacterial pneumonia.
The bolus contains oxytetracycline, a broad-spectrum antibiotic that possesses a high order of
stability and potent antimicrobial activity and should knock it out pretty quickly.
In addition to vaccinations.
Each calf also gets a brand new ear tag, this one to control flys in and around them.
Fly activity can spread disease and cause many problems.
Biting flies spread deadly disease to cattle and others can transfer pink eye.
We can never eliminate the fly problem but this is one course we take to control it.
Also because the calves are constantly around their moms, the protection can spread to their
mom as well.
After all that is done, then its time to brand.
Probably one of the most controversial things we do here on the ranch.
For us, it’s a necessary evil.
There are alternatives, but they are expensive.
Including RFID tags but not all feedlots and stock yards are set up for them.
Branding has been around for thousands of years, mostly as a way to identify your livestock
but now as tracking improves its also a way to track livestock throughout its life.
Ear tags identify animals as well, but they lose ear tags and a calf will never lose their
brand.
With neighbors with calves as well, we need a way to identify calves if they get mixed
up together, and further down the line a brand helps identify where a calf came from if there
is a problem with disease or contamination.
It is a clear identification system.
If our cattle ever got out onto a public road or went through a fence onto another’s property
or even stolen from our property, authorities would know where they came from and work would
be done to get them back home.
As technology improves, I have no doubt that branding will eventually go away.
Legislation will make procedures for identification and we will follow them but for now we brand.
Calves aren’t hurt for long, I’m sure its uncomfortable for a few seconds but within
an hour we will see the calves are laying down chewing their cuds.
For those who don’t know, cattle that are chewing their cud are pretty content.
The process moves on, and next up for the boys, is the banding.
Some people band, and some knife casterate.
There are good reasons to do both and there are down sides to both.
We band there is no chance of bleeding, no open wound, has little affect on calf, the
down side is a chance of tetanus but as we said earlier, we vaccinate for that.
After we are all done, each calf leaves the chute, usually pretty easily.
They walk out and rejoin their friends.
They have been on the calf table for a total of 3 to 5 minutes, and those few minutes may
save their life and will definitely help the ranch in the long run.
When we are done, all calves are returned to their moms who head out to pasture to get
back to doing what they do best and that’s eat.
We get to eat too.
And everyone is fat and happy.
I think I’m still working off that meal.
I hope you enjoyed our branding recap.
We have lots more on the way as we really get to haying, we have a few small tractor
problems slow us down but now we are up and running again.
Join us Thursday night, 7pm for our livestream and be sure to check us out on facebook and
Instagram for content that you cant find anywhere else.
I’ll see you Thurday and again this weekend as we take a look at the mower and the beginning
of haying.
Thanks a bunch, have a great week and thanks for joining us in our Wyoming life.