Did you know that May is known as National Beef Month. Yes, you heard that right! There is indeed a month to celebrate the best source of protein for your body. Hopefully you have enjoyed a month of burgers and steaks and many of your other favorite cuts of lean beef. In fact, May 28th, was National Beef Burger Day! This would hardly be made possible if it weren’t for the many farmers and ranchers who provide constant care for their cattle.
Today I would like to share one of the main things currently happening on the Cross Diamond Ranch where my dad works and Rianna and I help out. Right now we are rounding out our calving season and are seeing the last of the baby calves being born. However, with the ending of calving season comes the beginning of branding time.
Here at Cross Diamond we do what we call a “rope and drag” branding. Basically what that means is that calves are roped by people on horseback and are pulled from the holding pen to the branding crew. The crew stabilizes the calf so it can be given its hot brand and vaccination. Although it may look scary, the calves are only branded for about 3 seconds and they stand right up and walk away like nothing even happened, so it is very fast and almost painless.
I am part of the vaccination team which means I help to safely administer vaccines to help keep calves healthy. I love my role when it comes to branding day because it is a very important job and I get to spend time with some of my best friends who also help with the vaccinations. Although some of our protocol has changed during branding day due to COVID-19, such as not as many people being allowed to come help, I am still so grateful for the time I got to have with those who were there. Usually, the Cross Diamond branding is a huge community event with nearly 70 friends and neighbors gathering to watch and help. To limit exposure due to social distancing only 10 people who actually live or work at the ranch were involved with the recent branding. It was still a lot of fun seeing some of my friends even though it was a smaller group. We were there to get a job done efficiently and effectively!
I really hope that you have enjoyed learning about our rope and drag brandings and if you have any other questions feel free to let us know. I hope that now you can celebrate National Beef Month just like my family and have an amazing beef dinner, because as you may have heard… “Beef, it's what's for Dinner!”
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