Write That Down

First, I missed this question from Belle the other day for Q&A…

Belle – When you brand your cattle, where do you put your brand?  Is it important what part of the calf – right leg, left leg?  When you sell your cattle then does it get branded by the new owner?  I know you sell your cattle for processing, but a new bull you buy or a bull you sell- how does this branding process work?

All excellent questions!  I did touch on this a bit the other day, yes, it matters where you brand.  We couldn’t just go sticking it anywhere!  There might be other A – A cattle out there (there are actually!) but the difference may be placement, a slight variation of A – A, or location in the state.  You have to put it where the brand is supposed to go!  Again, we’re a left rib brand.  Depending on what the new owners are doing with the cattle depends on if they re-brand or not.  Our steers are going briefly to a feedlot and then to a packing plant.  They won’t be re-branded, they’re done moving around and the buyers have a bill of sale with number of head and brand details on it to show ownership.  If we sell some young heifers to someone, or even older cows that someone will integrate into their herd, they will re-brand.  Anything that’s got the possibility of mixing with other cattle need to be traceable.  A cow with multiple brands, though cheap, may not be a deal as they’ve been rejected by various earlier owners.  Get an open or non-pregnant cow with multiple brands and you’re asking for trouble.  Cows can get venereal diseases and pass them to bulls, who then can pass them to the next cow they breed.  Pretty quick your herd is full of disease and they need culled.  I rarely call for more laws in this overly litigious society we live in, but the State of Wyoming ought to prevent the import of open cattle into this state, and then prosecute those who do it.  (OOPS, almost stood on my soapbox…)  😉  A new bull, yes, we brand him… if we sell a bull, most of the time he goes for hamburger, but if someone wanted to use a non-virgin bull (again, not a great idea for disease prevention) they would have to re-brand as well.

Great questions!

My garden is now, finally, fully planted…

This is my attempt at vertical gardening!  Since I’m going “jungle style” with my garden this year, packing it full of plants, I decided to try this for my cucumbers and peppers.  I even put some small branches in with the dirt in one column… I’m interested to see if it helps with the moisture retention (mini-hugelkultur!)  There’s  a lot of weight on the rebars, Vernon thinks it needs a top crossbar to help stabilize them.  They do tend to sway in the wind!

Everything seems to be up except some squash.  Now to guess if that was a bed of summer squash or zucchs that hasn’t come up!  I should always write that down… and never do!

 

Find me here!

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