Branding

Ok so funny story: last friday night, Buck and I were getting ready to go out to dinner together when my best friend from high school, Bree, called me and said that her and her hubby were on their way to Sanpete county and wanted to stop in Orem and have dinner with us. At the end of dinner as we were wrapping up, she asked us if we were going home for the weekend, and she somehow mentioned that they had to brand cows all day the next day. Bree's dad lives on a farm and she grew up branding and comes down every year to give her dad a hand.

Well the second she said the word "Branding" Buck's ears perked and it was like she had said they had free tickets to a seven day exotic tropical luxury cruise.


Buck went nuts, because he LOVES cows. Loves them. And anything that has to do with farming. Buck grew up doing all that stuff. So he asked if they needed help, and I got sucked into it. So last saturday we spent the day branding, tagging, casterating, and giving vaccination shots to about 90 head of calves.

I'm surprised to say that I had a ton of fun. I learned a lot, and hung out with my best friend, which never happens anymore. Oh and Bree got to feed all their bummer lambs.
So the castering is crazy. They basically just cut the scrotum off and pull out each teste, includind the cord.

I about crapped a chicked the first time I saw it. Here's a calf telling me he hates me with his eyes. While he was in this green pen thing, he had both his ears pierced, a shot with about a drinking straw sized needle in each side of his neck, his manhood cut and pulled from his groin, and a metal red hot brand burn on his butt, all within 2 minutes. And you think YOU had a bad day??

My job was to give the shots :) Bree helped

WARNING: BELOW ARE GRAPHIC PICTURES, SO IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH, DON'T LOOK, OR DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU.

This is them casterating the calves and pulling out the testicles

They throw them on the ground, and their dogs would eat them. I about threw up when I saw them.









Yummy.


This is the brander, and then Bree actually branding. It reeks of burnt hair.

Bree and her hubby Wes. This was his first time branding with the fam, Bree was breaking him in.

And Buck of course was in heaven.

And we got fried.