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I've been looking forward to finally getting to rope some calves on my draft colt. We've had a bunch of rain and should have been branding for a couple weeks already. She's 3 now and about as gentle as they come. Her mother was a percheron and the stud a quarter horse. Here she is about 1 week old And from last saturday. That might not be the first calf but it was one of the first few. You can tell it really made her nervous. I only roped about 15 calves on her and then switched to my older horse. For a couple reasons, while my colt is very gentle I don't have her reining great yet one handed and we had a lot of ground help so I needed to be dragging them in fast. Plus I didn't want to make her first branding a chore. I'd already gathered on her the day before plus that morning. My daughter roped with me too. This is my older horse, half sister to the draft. Out of a different mare. She's 9. When I brought that calf in there was only one wrestler available to I held the back legs while he held the head. I don't remember what Bernardino and I were talking about then.
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Joined: Jun 2001
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Yo sure did have enough ground help
If God wanted you to walk and carry things on your back, He would not have invented stirrups and pack saddles
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Joined: Apr 2005
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Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
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Nice Ralphie. They both look a bit Hancock on the color.
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Joined: Dec 2003
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Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
Joined: Dec 2003
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As a greenhorn, I'd like to try that sometime.
If you take the time it takes, it takes less time. --Pat Parelli
American by birth; Alaskan by choice. --ironbender
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Feb 2006
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Very interesting Ralphie, sweet pony!
Anymore we just use a calf table.
Way slower so we have 3-4 small brandings but it only takes 3 guys, if we're only doing a mini branding(20-40 calves) my dad and I can get by.
Been to a few 'big crew' brandings and they are more fun than work!
I don't see any ear tags, do they band or cut the bull calves?
Nice big calves, we are a couple weeks late as well, some lunker calves now!
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Joined: Dec 2002
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Campfire Regular
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All but the heifer calves are born on their own out on the winter-spring range. So only the heifer calves get ear tags right away. The replacement heifers will get tags when they calve. So all the cows on the ranch have an ear tag with a number and how old they are.
We still cut the bull calves, but a lot of folks around here band.
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Joined: Nov 2009
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Nov 2009
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All but the heifer calves are born on their own out on the winter-spring range. So only the heifer calves get ear tags right away. The replacement heifers will get tags when they calve. So all the cows on the ranch have an ear tag with a number and how old they are.
We still cut the bull calves, but a lot of folks around here band.
When we had cow/calves, we did both, cut and band. It seemed to me that the cut calves grew out better. Seemed the banded calves had a tendency to be more pot-gutted.
Old Turd- Deplorable- Unrepentant Murderer- Domestic Violent Extremist
Just "Campfire Riffraff and Trash"
This will be my last post! Flave 1/3/21
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Joined: Aug 2006
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Do any of you guys schedule brandings according to moon phases? An old neighbor did. He said the bleeding from castration and dehorning was always less and the calves recovered and gained better. On the other side of the coin, my dad always said the moon was right when you got them in the pens......
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Joined: Apr 2005
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Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
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The only guy I help with here cuts all his calves and yearling colts by moon phase. He started doing it that way several years back and said he's never had an issue since he started doing that.
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Joined: Jan 2010
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Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 32,130 Likes: 1 |
The only guy I help with here cuts all his calves and yearling colts by moon phase. He started doing it that way several years back and said he's never had an issue since he started doing that. I've never heard this before. We stopped banding years ago and went back to cutting.
If you put Taco Bell sauce in your ramen noodles it tastes just like poverty
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Joined: Jan 2004
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Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
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Do any of you guys schedule brandings according to moon phases? An old neighbor did. He said the bleeding from castration and dehorning was always less and the calves recovered and gained better. On the other side of the coin, my dad always said the moon was right when you got them in the pens...... My grandfather (92 year old life long farmer) has always cut both hogs and calves by the moon phase. He'd tell my grandmother to check the Farmer's Almanac and would line up us grandson's to be available to help when the moon was right.
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Joined: Dec 2003
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Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
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What moon phase do they use?
If you take the time it takes, it takes less time. --Pat Parelli
American by birth; Alaskan by choice. --ironbender
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Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
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I "think" it is supposed to be best to cut when it's a new moon...again, I don't know enough about it to say. I just show up when he says he needs help.
A guy who rents some of our land will only plant according to the almanac. I know sometimes he's quite a bit later than other local farmers. He's also always got a bumper crop...but that could just be all the chicken chit he uses for fertilizer.
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Joined: Jan 2006
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 69,390 Likes: 4 |
I've heard about using moon phases all my life but have never seen any verified data about it. One time I heard a lady say her father always planted his potatoes on Good Friday in the dark of the moon. Well, um, there has never in history been a Good Friday in the dark of the moon so I guess the old boy never got his spuds planted.
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” ― George Orwell
It's not over when you lose. It's over when you quit.
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Campfire Regular
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OP
Campfire Regular
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I have a buddy in Idaho that cuts his bull calves with the moon. I think he'd look it up in the Farmer's Almanac and then plan his branding.
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Joined: Apr 2012
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Campfire Member
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Campfire Member
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i worked for a vet for 4 years in high school, so we were cutting calves everyday of the month, there is something to the moon deal. you could see it, sometimes they would bleed bad, other times not at all, but we are like your dad huntsman, we work them when we have the time and they are in the pens. I think the sign is supposed to be below the knee but don't hold me to that.
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Joined: Jan 2006
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 69,390 Likes: 4 |
Virtually everything you can read on it is someone's opinion. I've never been able to find any real research on it at all.
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” ― George Orwell
It's not over when you lose. It's over when you quit.
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Campfire Outfitter
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Following certainly doesn't constitute research. Still it's interesting. Seems like if the moon can effect tides it could effect a body. Of course, there are multiple high/low tides each day....I'd think if the moon sign theory is correct then at least the high/low tides during those signs would be somewhat different than they are at other times. ...interesting, one of you please figure it out, I've got to go dig a few holes and put some corner posts in the ground... http://www.stallingspainthorses.com/trainer/castrate-moon-signs.htm"B. R. challenged many veterinarians to try castrating on different dates, and inevitably, they all agreed that horses bled less when cut on the moon signs, so we continue to use this method." "Barometric changes caused by the gravitational pull during the moon phases evidently affect not only the tides, but the blood-flow in our own bodies."
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Joined: Aug 2002
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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Old man here used to talk about the moon phase and post holes. How some times you barely had enough dirt to fill in around the post and sometimes way too much. He laid it off on the moon. Lots of old timers believed in doing about everything by the almanac. miles
Look out for number 1, don't step in number 2.
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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The moon phase was a major consideration when we branded, castrated and dehorned. It was important that the moon phase was within a month of when we did it...
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