Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Calf Table

Too bad that we cant find help anymore.....young help anyway.

But this works pretty well.

growing food, raising food, is just too much work for most of today's snowflakes. About 2 million farms grow and produce most of the food in the US.

Dang, y'all have that down pretty good.

You got that many hands, you could be ropin', draggin', and flankin'...

I've never said who I work for on a forum and never will for various reasons. Probably paranoia on my part, and it wouldn't take much sleuthing to figure out who, but anyway.

The outfit I work for is one of many companies that offer Calf Tables. Most major Cattle Handling Equipment Brands offer them (W-W, Priefert, Powder River, For-Most, Filson). I've never understood why they're not more popular than they are. If you're working larger calves (say over 250lbs), a regular Squeeze Chute will usually do. But anything smaller, and regular sized headgates start having a tough time holding the head, especially smaller headed breeds (think brahma). Calf tables will have downsized headgates, and grant more animal access for branding, castration, etc. Calves also sort of "give up" once you lay them on their side.

Cows will work pretty easy. Even in a wood alley with a head gate. But calves are usually what beats you to death. An adjustable or dedicated calf crowd alley and a calf table saves a lot of time, money, and trouble in the long term. Calf tables and calf alleys are easy to find and show up every day (unlike hired help).

The best 200 pair cattle handling facility you can buy wouldn't cover a week in the hospital. I've been plenty beat up working cattle and know a lot of folks that have been messed up for life doing it. That said, I can't understand why some folks gripe about millennials being unwilling to come out and get hurt in sub-standard (non existent) cattle handling facilities for $10.00 and hour anymore. I don't see too many Baby Boomers jumping up and down for those job prospects either........

I get that some folks think that doing it all by hand is "fun"(and it is, till it ain't) and it's part of a lifestyle. In some parts of the country, the range is still big enough that the only way to really effectively manage cattle is still on horseback (there's even a few places back east like that), but for everyone else, buy good, quality, cattle handling equipment. I've had plenty of folks cry while they wrote the check, but NONE regretted it after the fact.

Except for the guy that has to push those little [bleep] up the alley. We had a pair of catcher's shin guards for whomever drew that straw when we worked a group across a table.

Nice brand, by the way Jim.

Just putting a new headgate on my new working pens chute today.

That's a job in itself. Good thing I had the tractor to set the gate.

Couple reasons. If you have a big bunch of cattle, it is pretty dang handy to get them all worked in a day. If you are neighboring, you only need to borrow help for that one day and you're done.

Nostalgia definitely comes to play.

Pretty sure it would be dang hard to work 1,000 calves across a table in one day, especially if you are cutting calves. Done that at a regular branding and it was a piece of cake. A great community builder to boot.

Lol, you should post that on some social justice warrior site and watch the melt down.

Wife and I have to run a group of calves across the table this weekend and cut them. It is a bit slow with just the 2 of us and the kids helping a little bit. Makes me consider banding them instead.

That's what I'm doing this year.

It's just way too easy to band and work them when they are small. Easier on the calf too.

We never liked the calf table because it was just too much fun getting the kids into the coral, and watching them rassel calves.

Branding was always a family event, involving three generations, right down to the five year olds. But we worked the calves before they hit six weeks. The cows go down the alley and through the squeeze chute. And the men handle that chore.

I get the whole Nostalgia and Lifestyle thing. I've not owned a cow since '98 and Dad sold the last of his in 2012. A big part of my staying with my job is out of a desire to stay in the industry, and I find the equipment side the most interesting.

It'd take a shade over eight hours at 30 seconds a calf to work 1,000 calves, so I'd say it'd depend on the crew as much as anything. But, we did just introduce a hydraulic calf table !

30 seconds per calf including cutting calves is a bit of a stretch. I can tell you as someone who works more cattle than most anyone outside of a feedlot, getting that many cattle worked is far more about how quickly you can get the animal in and out of the chute. And to think you can run calves up an alley continuously all day long and maintain that pace is a huge stretch.

Did that couple times a year as a kid in Ks on the farm, and still go back and help brother some years. Ours were always bigger in size and we did not have a squeeze chute that tilted to the side. Man that branding smoke stinks.

We can do a heifer in about a minute, sometimes a little less. My bander was saying that a Johnson calf table allows you to band and brand at the same time, where as this For Most you should wait.

Still, less than a minute and a half to run a bull calf through.

This was the first year we ran them all through in one day, usually its just the wife and I doing about 70 at different times. Usually had bunches or 100 or so out on grass but this year we are going to run them all together. Intensive style on tame, native and cover crops.


A tub of some sort would be nice for this job!


Yeah, its a dang nice brand.....and I kinda lucked into it. My Great Uncle on dad's side had the same initials as me, J C. When I turned 18 my Dad's cousin gave me the brand.

Its a C lazy J on the left rib. Goes on nice and fast and does not blotch like a B or an A can.


We started banding a few years ago, mainly because the kid I had trained up to cut moved to North Dakota. He sure was good. Nice clean job and fast.

No body wanted to cut and no body wanted to brand, so we band now and I brand.

This year they were right at the limit of the little green rings....I cut one that was way too big. We gave a tetanus shot to the big ones. Dont know if its necessary but some folks say it helps when you band a big one.

I thought it was maybe a C and a quarter circle. But a CJ is just as nice and clean. Love those type of brands, clean, simple and no blotch. Word=ked for an outfit that was S quarter circle, same thing. Also done a lot of branding with brands that are very easy to blotch. really want someone who knows how to brand when you're running an X or an N or a W etc.

Ours is a Rafter L. Pretty good but not as nice as a CJ.

I have always been of the opinion that if you band calves, you need to give a 7-way.

When


When I was a teenager I would have worked for the experience alone, but no one wanted someone inexperienced. Adds in the paper stayed there for along time from people who stipulated experience only. Some even said will not teach or something to that effect. If you want help it may be necessary to teach youngsters or older and maybe you do.

We give everything a 7 or an 8 way, I dont remember, big bull calves get a tetanus as well.

Maybe thats over doing it? Was recommended by a couple of local vets.

Oh yes, Just a Hunter. We will take anyone and teach them. Usually want an experienced guy to cut or brand, but anyone can learn to band and give shots. Or wrestle.


Except for big meat head college wrestlers. Its funny as hell to watch those big devils get beat to hell by a little bitty calf. And you cant tell them anything! Wrasstling? Hell, I know about wrasstling!

You will watch a young ranch girl make the meat heads look like pikers! Brute strength works, but technique is better.

There is no shortage of young folks in our area who work the brandings. Some are relatives, some are their friends and they all love it. High school rodeo helps a lot. We have used calf tables on several occasions but prefer the old fashioned way if you have good ropers and wrestlers.

BTW that is a great video of those guys working the calf. They got it down really well.

I like the Yellow hotshot. That's my favorite cattle working tool. It's to bad the triggers aren't as good as they used to be.

I like ear notching the ends of the ears too. It sure helps sorting them later when the steers are notched on the left and the heifers are notched on the right.

My calf table is the ground. If they're young enough, and the mamma cow will let me, I just hold them down and tag and band. If they're a little too big, or mamma is mean, I'll run them in the catch pen, separate them and do it there. If they get too big, that's where my son comes in and helps me.

If you work them to fast the Irons don't have time to heat.

So Jim how many Irons do you use ?

When someone offers to help or shows up to help and the first thing they do is to ask where the hotshot is, I tend to hide the hotshot.

I have four calf sized irons.

Two C's and two J's.

I used to have 6 but one set got two thin so now it hangs on the wall.

Build them out of old steel wheel spokes on the anvil.

I worked for the Scar Bar Blotch, too......

that guy in the suspenders..............

he's workin' on his 'dick do'

his stomach sticks out further than his dick do..........

Those suspenders are the only cure to noassatall.

Have some good friends that suffer from noassatall. Belt doesn't do any good...

SOP 50 years ago in NE MT. I don't see the requisite beer cooler. ;-{>8

One time when I was about 8 or 9, we were working calves in the barn. I was too little to do much with them, Dad and my Mom's Dad (Papa Paul, as we called him) did most of the work and I watched.
My Dad's Dad (Papa Arnold) had come down on vacation (he was a Millwright Supervisor at one of the GM Plants and never knew a whole lot about cattle, and was one of the stoutest men I've ever known, even well into his 60's) and was there helping where he could.
One calf had gotten a little too big (around 200 lbs), Papa Arnold decided he'd make short work of him and dove on him. After being drug around the barn twice, he lost his grip, the calf did a dance up his chest and head and ran off. We thought my Grandad was hurt, but he got up surprised and laughing.
Dad and Papa Paul finally got him wrestled down, Papa was holding the leg and sitting on him while Dad was trying to get him banded. Somehow, Papa Paul lost his grip on the leg and Dad got kicked in the side of the head (he always said it was the most impressive light display he had ever seen without losing consciousness).

The next year we had a pretty nice set of UT designed wood pens and a store bought headgate.

Anybody that's ever worked very many cows has some interesting stories. Dad tells me that what I sell now is cheating and takes all the fun out of it.

Jim, it is that time of the year!


Looks like a handy calf table and a good crew. Other than it's drier than hell we can't complain about the weather either...


We got done seeding wheat and went right back to the cows and branded 3 times last week.

Couple mini bunches of 45-50 calves and then did 162 head on Friday. Still around 40-50 head to calve but they are dropping pretty regular so hopefully be pretty much done in a couple weeks.



Years ago we went to a calf table. Hard to schedule a crew around the weather and semi's(we haul pairs out to pasture...) so the table makes sense. That and I don't know many young guys who want to wrestle.

Nice to be able to brand up a load with just one phone call and 3-4 guys.


Last Friday.

I run the table, my dad brands and vaccinates while a couple of big 'kids' from the colony takes turns pushing 'em up to the table.

(I'm jealous of all your help!)

Looks good Sam. It would be nice to have a big crew again, but like you......I HATE trying to get people together and either have it rain, snow, or no one show up.

Nice hot iron! 162 is a big bunch for a small crew. Good lick of business.

As far as the beer cooler.....we bought three thirty packs. Almost got it all used up!

Hey, that guy in the suspenders is the boss! Gotta be nice to the boss!

'Their brands were still on fire, and their hooves were made of steel".

Jim, another bad thing about the 'crew' is the guy who stands around all afternoon and thinks he deserves hunting/fishing access for the next 20 years....grin

Cash money to the workers and they deserve every penny.

Got the taste of burning calf hair out of your mouth yet Sam?

Cooler coulda been a little bigger. ;-{>8

Richard, it is so G-damn dry here I had a sprinkler going around the the corrals.


Made a little difference here and there but still coughed up and blew out black snot for 6-7 days in a row.


But at least the breeze was at my back when we worked the big bunch. Blew it towards the kids.....grin



Sorting off loads was another story. Dust bowl.

OT, no beer for me that day!

About 7-8 bottles of water and ice tea though....

I've got that merit badge!

That said if you don't have to worry about anything I'd get beered up for sure!


No hair brands!

I'd like to loan out a couple of inches, but it don't work that way.

The eternal conundrum....



Not to hijack the thread but guess who had MULTIPLE chances to behave but still had to try out the new leash?
(aka gate chain...)

Haha!

Now that, is a chain. Our dog Rowdy used to wear out chain.

Has anyone here tried out electric irons?
If electricity is available, that's what we use - and if it isn't, I take my Honda EU2000 out. With this set up, we can average a calf a minute - assuming clean, fairly short, hair.
A proper calf table is like having 2-3 more good hands.

Yes Mark, we have not used the branding iron for years now, but we have an electric. We have a registered brand for Iowa.

Was around some electric irons years ago. I was never impressed, but I hear they have improved.

Worst was battery powered de-horning irons. You could boil coffee in the time it took them to warm up.

We got rained on when we branded the other day. Just turned up the propane and kept going.


It was just enough to settle the dust, but it can sure slow progress down if you cant keep your irons hot enough.

Nothing worse than getting low on propane and it's starting to rain.

yeah.....







Electric irons and hydraulic chutes rock......

2 irons. The M over bar is one, the P is the tuther.....

The ranch where I help out uses a calf table and electric iron. With a mixture of heifers/bulls we can do about 50 an hour if we have a very efficient pusher with good technique. In general that means me, but we always try to train some younger guys to do it. With brute force, they need a rest after 25 calves. With good technique, I can usually go for 2 hours straight with no break.

Potsy is right about good equipment making it easier on the cows and the crew. We have four working corrals scattered over about 15 sections in two locations plus the corrals at the house and it is not always possible to have the best equipment at each location. Not to mention the folks from town that want to haul off or vandalize things. We use squeeze chutes or calf tables when they are available and it is not a social event. We use propane burners or 55 gallon barrels with the top cut out and a hole in the side. No shortage of mesquite for the fire. Sale barn uses an electric branding iron. Took them about 20 minutes to brand a bull I bought the other day. Have a couple guys that help me and we get it done. Never developed a taste for beer and the whiskey and tequila wait till we get home. I'll rope your cattle all day long but when your working my cattle don't pull your rope off your saddle until I pull mine off first. Things have a way of getting western enough with encouraging it. Where do you think Baxter Black gets his material.

That M Bar P stacked is very similar to our brand. Ours is a Lazy M Bar L stacked same as yours.

Just a hint - if you cut a slot in the side of one of those 35 gal (more or less) plastic drums, and hang the electric iron inside, out of the wind - they re-heat a LOT quicker, and stay hot better. (Handy height, too)
We use a 5 gal bucket with about a gallon of ant hill sand to knock the burnt hair off the iron after every animal - just kind of twist the iron into it a couple of times - and you can keep up the speed.

We use a 15 gallon steel barrel to keep the wind off. see third pic

We use a discarded mini-fridge to keep it hot. Then store everything in there that is needed (branding iron, heavy-duty cord, wire brush, etc) for the next time or when we move to a different location.

If our electric is spitting hot, then we hold it on a calf for a count of 7, and that will be a perfect brand on the shoulder.

Sounds like you've got a good system Mark.

Mark, it works for us. Our various pens have been refined over 4 generations, now. (Damn, that's a long time )
Thinking back, the first branding I "helped" at was in about 1957. I'm OOOOOLLLLLLLDDDDDD !

I have found it is best to watch, very closely, the smoke coming off the iron. When it turns color, you've finished burning through hair and started to get the hide. Keep a hot iron on a slick calf for seven seconds and you risk blotching or worse, burning right through the hide.

There's not a whole lot of branding here in the East. Way back when I was in college, a buddy of mine flunked out and got a job managing a farm the same day. The place was in pretty rough shape and cattle pretty much wandered around wherever they wanted to go (mostly corps ground around the lake). He did have a pretty decent horse and there was a sweep tub and squeeze chute in a pile inside one of the barns. They did have an electric brand and as he brought cattle in, he'd brand them just so he'd know his from anybody else's until the fencing was repaired (fortunately, the neighbors had kept their fences up pretty well, we deal with a lot more fences over here than ya'll probably do:( ).

I did work at a demo a few years back for a dealer where it was my equipment, a couple of pharmaceutical reps, and a fellow showing how to freeze brand. That's sort of a neat deal but mostly seems for individual animal identification. WAY too slow a process for the folks on this thread.

Freeze branding is agonizingly slow. Although I believe we can freeze brand now for ownership.

Working pens seem to always be a work in progress. No end to it. Going Saturday to look at modifying some pens for a neighbor.

And "shipping pens" are built differently than "working pens"
Years ago, we put 600 large yearlings over the scales, to feedlots, in a long morning - from Dad's shipping pens.
But it would take up to an hour to doctor a sick one - in the same pens.

Do you have to buy the right to use a brand?

yes.

And some of them are expensive.


$10-20k for the real unique ones.


$1-5k for something decent. Unless you know someone.


In MT you have to re-register your brand(s) every 10 years.

Expensive registration too.

In colorado to register a new brand it must be at least 3 characters. A new brand is $200 to register(unless it went up). $300 for 5 years assessment to maintain registration. If a guy wants a single or 2-digit brand, you have to buy an existing one.... And be prepared to PAY....

They were going to try that here too, cant remember if they got it done.

wabi, here's a few for sale...


http://www.ranchworldads.com/index.php?cat_id=30

Sadly, that equipment has done away with a social event involving near all the neighbors. Efficient, yes. Progress? Not so sure.

Did yall keep the oysters or throw them away??

Arizona actually has a pretty good system for brand registration. A hot brand is the only legally recognized method of identifying the owner. All brands have to be registered with the Arizona Department of Agriculture. Unbranded, weaned cattle are free game (mavericks, slicks).

You can submit a design for your own brand and go through the approval process which takes about six months. The brand has to be advertised to see if there are any objections. Must be a minimum of two characters. I think the cost is about $100.00 plus a $50.00 registration fee for five years.

You can pick up an brand that has been allowed to lapse and that requires a $50.00 renewal fee for five years. Department of Agriculture posts abandoned brands in the "Cattlelog", official publication of the Arizona Cattle Growers Association.

You can buy a brand from someone but that is a private transaction between the buyer and seller. Buyer then has to register the brand with ADOA.

There are still a few cattle inspectors in the state but most producers have "Self-inspection Forms" which are used to move cattle from pasture to pasture or from pasture to the sale barn. Inspector still has to inspect private treaty sales. Slaughter houses and sale barns require inspection forms before they will accept cattle.

Renewal fee is $50.00 for five years.