The Inaugural Branding

So, my aunt and uncle just started their own herd of cattle and James went out to help with the "inaugural branding." Here are a few pictures from the day:

Here are the cattle below with the boys (not James this time) on horseback rounding them up.

Here they are neatly in the pen. Because this was the first branding of their herd, even the adults needed branded. James got the job of putting the crowbar into the chute behind the cow to keep it from moving. He apparently got pooped on a lot during this process, but unfortunately I was not there to get pics : (

After lunch, they branded the calves. Here they are moving the calves.And here's James as he tagged one of the calves named Bubba. Our family uses this nifty table thing for branding calves, so there are fewer newbie jobs to go around.


Here's my cousins wrestling a calf before it gets put into the table.Here's James manning the branding iron in the pot. Silly James forgot his cowboy hat and ended the day with a gnarly sunburn.

The calf on/in the table. One person would hold the hind end, one would brand, one would castrate, and another would administer the shots. It's quite the operation.

The actual branding.The celebratory beer afterwards.


And just for fun, a short video of my cousin showing off his cowboy skillz.