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 !
