A hard(ly) working rancher

Today I got up before sunrise and endured the cold, the wind, and the abundant snowfall of late April. Why? To help out, or at least experience for my own sake, the branding of calves on the Flying K ranch.

My brother's girlfriend is related to the Kahls, who own and operate this ranch just west of Mandan. Every year the Kahls invite as many people as will come, city slickers included, out to their ranch to help out. The more people that show up, the quicker the work is done.

I grew up in agricultural towns, but I'd never even been on a ranch. And it had been probably ten years since I touched a cow. And I'd never tackled a calf before. Today I did it four times.

So how does a rancher go about branding hundreds of calves? Here are ten steps to branding:

1. Mount your horse and bring the cows in from the pasture. Since I don't have a horse or a clue how to ride one, I watched from a hilltop in a pickup. Here's a snapshot of the ranch from above.

   

2. Separate the cows from their calves. Again, I don't have a clue how to do this. I spent this time in the barn enjoying a little breakfast next to the heater and thinking I was crazy to come out in this cold weather. It started to snow heavily at this point. Luckily, the snow melted quickly.

3. Herd a few calves at a time into a corral with a bunch of clueless people such as myself.

4. As demonstrated by my brother and his girlfriend, find the smallest calf you can, and try to tackle it.

   

5. Fail to tackle it. Try again.

   

6. And again.

   

7. And yet again.

   

8. Success.

   

   Hold the calf down until a real cowboy stops by with the branding iron. The calf also gets two injections. Then release the poor confused animal to the pasture. Repeat several hundred times, once for each calf.

9. Chow down on an amazing meal prepared by the rancher's wife and family. They served delicious roast beef, of course.

10. Take a shower and do laundry.

All around a bad day for cows. But at least I had fun.