Yesterday I started the Out Of Pocket Experience where you come along on a working day with me… and I take photos as I slave away with the camera winking out of my pocket. No focus, no framing, nothing artistic in evidence. I don’t have time for that, I’m WORKING! Today we finished up the work we started yesterday, sorting our replacement heifers out of the main bunch. We have 60 head that needed new eartags and age branded. When calves are born we give them the same number on their eartag as their moms’. These heifers still have that same number, but now, as full fledged members of the herd they get their own new number. Each number will begin with a 7, meaning they were born in 2007. Here’s a side view of an eartag.
The old one gets cut out and replaced by one of these…
The small numbers above pertain to their daddies… we keep good track of where everyone came from! From here on out, if 716 does anything… we record it… same with the other 59! We also tattoo this number in their left ear. Yup, just like fancy race horses and elite pooches… our girls get a number too. It goes like this…
Step one: clean out any cow ear wax, dirt, goo, more goo, etc. with a paper towel.
Step two: apply green tattoo ink with icky toothbrush. Step Three: apply tattoo-er… uh… what do you call it? Uh. I think we actually call it a tattoo-er! Blush. I can’t think of any other word. Sometimes my brain just leaves. Here’s a picture of it, though.
There’s the box of old discarded eartags… there’s 755’s new tag… and the tattoo-er with 755 dialed in. Look close and think backward… it does say 755. It actually pokes little holes that form the numbers. What? You think this is “Miami Ink” or something? Give me a break. Oh, and then there is the age brand. We give them a “7” on their left hip, just to help identify them out on the range.
The irons get hot in a cedar fire.
Vernon applies the brand.
Some stand there and take it…some beller like they are dying. This young lady is clearly a drama queen! I can share her pain… because I look at this.
My hands are never pretty… you can’t see the cow snot and cow slobber and cow poo that I’ve wiped off… I’ve often thought about a manicure… never had one… probably wouldn’t ever waste the money. They don’t have much to work with anyway. But I have always been jealous of women with clean styled fingernails. Not long ones. Just pretty ones. sigh. Back to work!
We moved the heifers about 3 miles to another pasture. I want you to know that although it looks mighty pleasant in this photo… the wind was blowing and my ugly hands were freezing! BRRRRRR that wind was COLD!
Halfway there… and my hands were so cold, I turned off my camera and put my gloves on! Thanks for coming along on OOPE2… I think I’ll continue this on working days. Stay tuned tomorrow for my fave photo I took today… see ya! Gonna go sit by the fire and warm up again!
Find me here!
