BRANDING MUSTER

School Holidays are underway  and this is a special time here at “Boogalgopal”  that sees our ‘young ringers’ (aka the grandkids) take part in some,or all, of the mustering. This week we started on some of the single sire paddocks and the kids from age 4 to 11 all had a ball. The weather was clear  and hot  and the paddocks are in good order following some nice rain in November. Although the number of polled animals is increasing, this early brand allows any de-horning to be done before the cattle grow too much ! Smaller calves are not branded… merely tagged and vaccinated  and branded when more robust in January. It is always a rewarding time to see and select our future sires for sale or retention in our own breeding programme. We are pretty strict with our culling and any calf that may show a temperament  issue loses his “bull status” very quickly ! We are happy to say however that once again,  we were pleased with the ongoing quiet nature of this years drop!

Young Stirling on his pony “Harry” on a lead with Grandpa (Tex) and 11 year old Madison out front as heifers on their first calf  come up out of Curriers Gully crossing

Stirling….in good hands!

 

Waiting with a mob at Curriers Dam

 

Janelle , with Madison and 8 year old Ed, arrive  at the meeting camp.

 

Cattle are all mustered  and make their way towards the yards

 

Madison on the job

 

10 year old Greer leads the mob in to a holding yard

 

Checking out a few calves before branding begins

 

4 year Max and 5 year old Stirling,,taking the job of loading the tag guns very seriously !

 

5 year old Prue doing a great job on the slide gate

 

Lance and Madison up at the business end  of the crush

 

Prue , helping  yard the last of the baby calves to go back to their mothers

 

Madison heading back to the horses to saddle up again

 

Another paddock. This time Max rides with Tex as they cross Lockhardt Creek  with grey and red stud cows stringing behind.

These single sire mobs are  a breeze to muster and ideal for giving the young ones a ride.

 

Lance and Janelle bring up the rear end

 

Max..looking  very serious on “Spirit”

Time to rest the cattle and have some smoko at the holding yard

Prue…. with her pretty impressive ‘orange snake’  !

 

On the road again as we head towards the yards to process the cattle

 

A helping hand up for Prue from her big cousin

 

Another single sire mob of grey cows  comes in

….and is taken back to the paddock once  drafted , vaccinated , tagged and branded

The younger ones stayed behind this time as the cattle were taken back to their paddock but were waiting  to greet the return of the crew !

….and bolt as the horses cantered back in !!!!

Another paddock ……..Madison and Janelle  coming over the last  hill to the water …… cattle following

 

 

Time for a drink and rest the cattle

Heading away from the last water

 

These girls were very interested in the new mob coming in to the holding yard beside their paddock !

 

Locking the cattle in to rest while we have some smoko !

 

Dino laps up the attention and love from Ed and Max !!

Prue saddles up on Harry

And it is back on the road to the yards.

 

More paddocks followed over the next few days  and the kids did a sterling job staying motivated and seeing their jobs through to the end of each day.

All in all, we had a really good week, enjoying a bit of fun  but ultimately getting the job done  well !