Slick-eared,
she went ungathered,
missed the party,
missed the branding
ropes and vaccinations—
they wear the same look.
Not wild-eyed, but
about half-guilty,
half-sad they didn’t
RSVP. Still a chance
she’ll make the cowherd
like her mother.
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal
Tagged branding, Calves, cows, Paregien Ranch, photographs, poetry
Branding calves is an acquired art, not to be confused with the timed rodeo event of team roping. The idea is to get the calf to the fire while making it as easy on the calf, horses and ground crew (in that order) as possible. Douglas Thomason above times the rhythm of his loop for a long distance shot, catching the calf before it knows it’s caught, half the job done with no stress and little fuss.
Though the camaraderie is an essential part of trading labor, the branding pen is not a place for recreation. Robbin and I appreciate the care our neighbors take with our calves, as this 450 pound bull calf above would bring about $1,100 in town today. We hope that by June that he’ll be a 650 steer and bring in the vicinity of $2.50/lb. An injured calf, or ones overstressed and susceptible to sickness can become expensive.
Followers of branding pictures on this blog will recognize many familiar faces. On the ground, everyone has a job to do, an orderly process of vaccinations, castration, branding, dehorning, earmarking, tagging and recording–in the branding pen, it can become a dynamic dance.
Yet in the midst of it all, there are moments that might be forgotten if not captured in a photograph, whether a daughter recently returned home having a moment with her father,
or a Brent Huntington wiping sweat and smoke from his eyes.
Our thanks to all, especially the several anonymous photographers.
Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal
Tagged branding, Brent Huntington, Calves, Douglas Thomason, Greasy Creek, neighbors, photographs
We set the ‘point and shoot’ on the branding table, the following were shot by several different people.
There is no easy tribute to good neighbors necessary in the branding pen, whether horseback or on the ground. Trading labor is part of our culture, and the work’s not done until everyone’s calves are branded and vaccinated. Towards the tail end of the branding season, our last bunch of calves were big, which makes Robbin and I happy of course, but it also means harder and more dangerous work for everyone.
Our gather to brand in Greasy began Sunday, over a week ago, interrupted by welcome rain that kept us from finishing the process until last Tuesday — some cows and calves had spent eleven days in out Gathering Field waiting for yesterday. Additionally, wood had to be cut for the branding and cook fires, and the weeds in the corral, nearly two-foot tall, had to be addressed with a weed-eater before we were ready.
It was a long day, shirtsleeves weather, warm in the mid-70s.
Always some exciting moments, even though everyone tries to be respectful and gentle with the calves, some were a handful, pushing 500 pounds.
Calm and steady, we have acquired an efficient routine of ropers and ground crew. Divided into two groups of ropers so arms and horses have time to rest between bunches, there’s always time to visit.
Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal
Tagged branding, Calves, cows, Greasy Creek, neighbors, photographs, weather
Maggie Loverin checks her pork loins adorned with grapefruit and oranges after we branded our Wagyu X calves yesterday, while the sun tried to break through the bad-air haze and remnants of Valley fog.
Noticeably quicker and more unpredictable to rope than our Angus calves, the Wagyu are a challenge to head and heel, real work for everyone. But we had a great day and ate well!
Well into our branding season now, we’re beginning to wear down a little, especially with the extra weight of wondering and worrying when it’s going to rain, repercussions of the drought still raw. One topic of conversation in the branding pen included the different kinds of bloat, fairly rare to most of us, but taking casualties in Antelope Valley, half-mile west of here.
All that methane gas that can’t escape inflates the cow and kills her usually leaving an orphan calf—a slurry of foamy gas in the cow’s rumen that can’t be released with an external needle or tube down her throat was news to us, that has come from our lush and washy feed in certain places on the flat ground, mostly filaree. We’ve had several of our cows blow up and subside on their own with a regular supplement of dry hay. There are also commercial free-choice products to prevent bloat that take time to incorporate into the cow’s system, but without assurance that everyone gets some.
How long this situation will last is unknown, but we know a rain would change things. With no likelihood for the rest of the month from any weather-predicting source, we get the work done in love with what we do.
Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal
Tagged Bovine bloat, branding, Calves, Drought, Dry Creek, photographs, rain, Wagyu X, weather
© 2013 Earl McKee Photo
Old men in the branding pen
hope for grace
to find the feel of singing loop
slide between their fingers—
of hoof dance timed and shaped
to catch two feet, slack to dally horn
come tight, as if it were nothing
out of the ordinary.
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal
Tagged age, branding, Calves, feel, feeling, Greasy Creek, Old men, photographs, poetry
1.
In the shallow ground and clay,
mats of filaree cling like crimson moss
after frost as if holding their breath for rain.
Yet warm enough for mustard bloom
in ungrazed traps for cattle, bits of yellow
at the tender tips of leafy greens—
all of the same seed that natives came
from Badger to gather when I was young.
White heads of Shepherd’s Purse nod
in bloom above the short-cropped blades
of lusher grass as if already spring.
Steep south slopes struggle, more mottled
brown than green—we beg and wait for rain:
busy fixing fences, branding calves, feeding hay
to bloating cows after years of drought
as high-pressure herds a warm jet stream north
to feed Alberta Clippers East with unwanted snow.
2.
We crave some sort of normal
that has become a hazy dream:
of cattle fat and happy, of time
to idly wile and waste
that old men will never see again.
Yet full of trust, trailing tidbits
from the gods, we chase it
like the feed truck still believing—
and that is normal despite extremes.
Posted in Poems 2015, Ranch Journal
Tagged branding, cows, Drought, Dry Creek, feeding, normal, poetry, rain, shallow ground, weather, wildflowers, Yokuts
1.
After the flood of holiday cheer
and four black and frosty mornings
into the New Year, I have lost track
of the names of days
celebrating work:
friends gathered,
calves branded,
meat fired
and bottles emptied—
the hugs and handshakes
of neighbors, persistent
habits etched deeper
in the hard ground
worn around our eyes—
deeper yet into souls,
our pupils as pinholes
to grand landscapes
either side, missed
by the migratory headed
somewhere up the road.
2.
We live within a dot on the map,
a speck of dust on a spinning globe
in space and time without end,
holding firm to our moment,
looking back and ahead at once:
no finish line in sight.
3.
We pace our plodding, take all week
to get the work done, to savor details
of small accomplishment in a hazy
scheme of keeping track of seasons
shaped by rain, or lack of it—
our spiritual sustenance comes
with the crescendo of storms
we pray for, almost everyday, keeping
busy while we wait for an answer.
4.
In the winter, we invest in the future
measured by firewood stacked outside
the door, like last year’s crop of acorns
stored by natives, wild and domestic,
we are prepared in this place
to loose track of days scattered
like native cattle into strays
chasing the good grass back home.
I find my friend hunting
on my way to cut wood
for a branding fire.
Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs
Tagged birds, branding, Burrowing Owl, Calves, Dry Creek, haiku, photographs, poetry, wildlife
A beautiful day for a branding with friends, Teri heels a calf for her Dad.
Sid and Javier
Robbin and Lee Loverin
Tony Rabb
Kenny McKee
Break time between teams, we try to keep the work slow for us older people, time to visit, have a snack and a beer.
Clarence Holdbrooks and John
Virginia McKee, Craig Ainley and Kenny McKee
Bev Drewry, John, and Maggie Loverin
Teri Drewry and Lee Loverin
Bill Drewry
Brent Huntington sets one up for Teri
And the oak tree, one of two in the branding pen that keeps the pace subdued. Clarence renamed it “The Release Tree’.
Bill leads one for Teri.
For our first branding of the season, everything was just right. A good place to start on the ranch before the ‘forecast’ rain, still on for Thursday night and Friday, makes our road too slick to travel for who knows how long. Good to get the calves worked before they get too big.
In this ever-modern and high-tech society of work saving devices, we are yet a throwback cattle culture trading labor within our small community. Miles off the asphalt, the branding corrals become another world apart from the latest media hysteria, an opportunity, we like to think, to talk about important things.
Proud, pleased and exhausted, Robbin and I collapsed on the couch.
Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal
Tagged branding, community, culture, John Virginia McKee, Paregien Ranch, photographs, rain, weather
Across Dry Creek Canyon, a light dusting of snow on the Kaweahs and the Great Western Divide, from Alta Peak to Sawtooth, as we gathered yesterday to brand today on the Paregien Ranch.
Almost solid filaree in places, we’ve had a good germination in the granite at the 2,000 foot elevation. Not a lot of grass, but better than in the clay at the lower elevations, our south and west slopes still struggling.
Clarence and I watch the gate as the girls feed hay where the cows and calves will spend the night. None of our facilities is air tight, so we hope they’ll still be in the pen when we get there this morning.
Lee, Teri, Robbin and Clarence replay a good gather.
Forecast rain for Thursday and Friday, we’re hoping to get the calves worked while we can still get up and down the road.
Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal
Tagged Alta Peak, branding, Calves, cows, Dry Creek, Dry Creek Canyon, Great Western Divide, Kaweah, Paregien Ranch, photographs, rain, weather
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