Next to the resort is a ranch owned by the parents of the owner of the resort. They have been busy the last several weekends branding all the newborn calves. All of the local ranchers get together and go from one ranch to the next rounding up the cows and calves so they can get branded. We drove out to the field where they had a corral setup. We watched as the ranchers brought the herd to the corral. The cows were bellowing the whole time. They were not happy being forced to go to the corral. Once they had them all penned the adult riders cut the cows out and moved them out of the pen so just the calves were left. The cows then surrounded the pen bellowing loudly, calling for their calves, clearly upset about being separated. The boys on horseback were then allowed in the pen and got to be the ones that roped the calves.
There was a four person team that worked on the calves. One person rubbed the area to be branded with an orange substance, then another gave an immunization, the branding was done and as a last insult they were castrated. All of this took less than four minutes per calf. The calves didn't bellow during any of the procedures. It was interesting to watch the process. The owners son (in the picture) is such a good roper that he is going to Washington DC to be in the junior national championship competition for roping.
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