Narjes Branding

I apologize for the lateness of my post, with finals and preparing for my upcoming France trip I don’t seem to have much spare time.

This weekend marked the second annual Narjes branding and my only ever second branding. Tyson and his brother Ryan decided last year that they wanted to start a cow/calf herd together so that they could take over renting their Grandpa’s pasture. I believe it has been a huge learning curve for the both of them, as they have never had their own cow/calf herd. Neighbors and friends have been more than willing to help them get started and give advice to the boys, which I know they are truly thankful for.

I’ll be honest last year I was completely new to this thing they call branding, and I had no idea what I was doing. The brand inspection area starts just west of where I grew up, so I had never experience a branding before. In eastern Nebraska there are no branding laws and we are required to fence in our cattle, but in the brand inspection area, cattle are still “free range” so to speak and producers are required to fence out other animals. The brand is used to identify animals to a certain producer and make sure that the person selling the animals has right to do so.

The weather Saturday wasn’t exactly what we had hoped for with 40° temperatures and winds up to 40 mph, but the boys pulled the stock trailer up next to the barn to use as a wind block. It was actually not too bad behind the barn, and I must say it was better than last year when it was raining and just as plain cold! The boys had plenty of people show up to help so the whole process went fairly quickly. 

Here are a few photos from the branding this past Saturday:

Tyson's brother Ryan worked the cows as they came through the shoot, he was assisted by his soon to be father-in-law Joe and his fiance Laura.

On the other side of the shoot, Tyson's oldest brother Kyle was branding the cows that the boys had purchases this year and hadn't been given the Narjes brand yet. Kyle and his girlfriend Sarah came back from Denver to help!

Sarah has never been to a branding before either, so she was eager to jump in and help, she did great!

Here Tyson is giving the calf a vaccination to help protect against diseases. The vaccination will last all summer long while the calf is in the pasture.

The boys had so much help that this is about all the action I got when it came to actually helping. Here is Tyson's younger cousin Allyson helping hold the calf while waiting for branding and vaccinations.

Here is why there was no need for me to help, look at all these strong men! :) Many friends and neighbors came out to help for the day, thanks to everyone who helped out!

After the quick branding and vaccination, the calves are soon back on their feet and reunited with their moms. You can   see the upside down TV, which is the Narjes brand.                                                                                                                                       (Don't mind Kyle in the background, I believe he was practicing his yoga or something...)

After all the work was done Susan, Tyson's mom had a great lunch ready to eat and cold drinks for all.

Here's the whole crew that showed up for the branding, minus Susan. Many thanks again to everyone that came out, it was a lot of fun! 

 Also many thanks to Tyson's mom, Susan, for all the wonderful pictures!