The Country Column: Invite your friends

It may seem a little out of season to you that I am writing a branding column considering branding season is, for the most part, over; but for those lucky few that have been recently invited to a late-season branding I offer you a piece of advice.

I somewhat recently attended a neighbor’s branding. For those of you who understand the seasons of cattle management, you know what I was getting into. For those of you who don’t, let me explain: Cattle have an average gestation length of 280 days. First-year heifers and cows are generally bred in the spring after weaning which puts these mama-to-be’s due date anywhere from January to April, depending upon ranch timing. Calves are on their feet minutes after being born and grow rapidly. As soon as these adorable critters are healthy enough to be worked and the weather is conducive to outdoor labor, brandings are scheduled. The reason why? The longer you wait, the bigger those calves get. The bigger those calves get, the less cute and easily man-handled they become. So, when I agreed to attend a late-season branding, I knew what I was getting myself into.

My husband and I arrived early to help set up. The sight that morning was grim. The crew appeared to be the usual neighbors who, by the looks of it, were not any more excited to brand 300 lb calves than we were. If I hadn’t known better I would have thought we were attending a UW vs. Boise State football game … waiting for the blowout - but then relief arrived. Two truckloads of “newbies” who were visiting friends piled out eager to learn the basics of branding and wrestling calves. The drivers announced that they had brought some friends who wanted to learn what happened at an old-fashioned branding and said, “We hope that’s ok.”

Life returned to our tired old group and the old-timers split the eager bodies into groups to show them one-on-one how to wrestle a calf. When ropers began dragging calves we had at least five different newbie groups ready to pounce. All it took was an old-timer wrestling a calf or two with a newbie and they were off. I only got in on the fun once or twice, but when I struggled to get two hands around a calf’s leg, I decided to leave it to the city slickers.

Three hours of newbies jumping on calves to see who was going to win the I’m-the-toughest-cowboy-around contest later, I took score. The new guys were drinking water like it was going out of style with a few bumps and bruises and entirely covered in sweat-caked mud and, more than likely, other things …. The old timers looked like their team had won. They were smiling and laughing and cracking beers to celebrate their win for the day.

I considered how I thought this day might go: sore, bruised, dirty, and smelly from working calves three times my size. I assumed by the end of this day I’d be ready for a hot shower, stiff drink, and bed and figured that most of the people here would feel the same way. Now I was thinking, why don’t we do it this way all the time?

The lesson to take away from this? If you’re invited to a late-season branding, or any branding for that matter, invite your friends. All of your friends.