Brand Thread?!?

[SherryT]

No brands around here, but if there are loose cows, we usually know who they belong to. If not, we shut them in the nearest field and wait for someone to claim them.

Pretty much the same in my area. I "shoo'ed" a couple of small calves back into our neighbor's pasture once hoping they belonged to them instead of the family across the road and let them know I'd done it (they did belong to them as it turned out!).

 

[DougE]

Pretty much the same in my area. I "shoo'ed" a couple of small calves back into our neighbor's pasture once hoping they belonged to them instead of the family across the road and let them know I'd done it (they did belong to them as it turned out!).

Pretty much how it works around here. If you run them into the wrong field, word gets around and the rightful owner will come get them.

 

[DougE]

Really? That is interesting… as the brand here is your staple saying the cattle is yours!

Small town America. We pretty much know who owns whatever cows, calves, bulls get loose. And if someone has hay down and has equipment issues, their hay gets rolled, usually free of charge. Just how it is in my neck of the woods, and why I love it here where I call home.

 

[SherryT]

Small town America. We pretty much know who owns whatever cows, calves, bulls get loose. And if someone has hay down and has equipment issues, their hay gets rolled, usually free of charge. Just how it is in my neck of the woods, and why I love it here where I call home.

Same here, Doug...not so much the closer to town you get, but out here in the country, yes.

 

[DougE]

Same here, Doug...not so much the closer to town you get, but out here in the country, yes.

Biggest problem I have is "town" keeps getting closer. Not going to be an issue in my lifetime, but eventually it will get out here.

 

[SherryT]

Biggest problem I have is "town" keeps getting closer. Not going to be an issue in my lifetime, but eventually it will get out here.

Oh, I know.

When we first moved out here, there was almost nothing between here and the nearest community (about half-way between here and town) except for a few small farms, a feed/seed, a mom/pop hdwe, and a couple of gas stations...now that community I mentioned above has grown into "almost" a small town itself.

Now that some of the older property owners are passing, it seems all their kids are interested in is selling off the family homeplace and pocketing the money.

I know that's their decision and they have a right to make it, but I hate seeing it happen!

 

[tx smoker]

Very cool thread!

Gotta agree here. I had a feeling when I first read the thread it'd be a lot of fun, and something that's never been addressed here as far as I know. hope to see some more cool stuff posted.

Robert

 

[DRKsmoking]

I used to stay every summer at my Grandfathers place the whole summer. Dairy farm, and that is most of that valley way.
Like said above , everyone knew everyone and their stock. No branding but the mature cows all had ear tag #

And at haying time , if someone broke down , another farm was there to pitch in .
Just the right way to do it.

Thanks for taking me back for a bit, I was normally the youngest for awhile . So I got to drive the tractor and wagon while my older cousins loaded the hay on in the fields

David

 

[seenred]

Cool thread Justin!

As you know, my late father was a cattleman his whole life. He and his 3 brothers - the four Green Brothers - ran the 4G brand from the mid 70's until sometime in the early 90's.

Red

 

[Retired Spook]

No. He sent me a text telling me that he has officially changed his name to Elvira...queen of the darkness. One can only guess why

This should be fun. I'll play along. this is how I try to brand all of my cattle:
View attachment 655324

A different cow
View attachment 655325

And yet another different cow.
View attachment 655326

I'm cheating but I love to play, even when I have nothing to offer That is my officially unofficial family brand though. Maybe, hopefully, somebody will come along with some real content to share. Be interesting to see. When I was 7 or 8 we had a Roy Rogers restaurant in town and I loved the food there. Fell in love with the Double "R" Bar burger, which was Roy's official brand. Had sort of a fascination with them ever since. Being that we have ranches all over the place out here, each one has a huge gate at the entrance with their brand posted. It's fun driving by and checking them all out.

Robert

Those are some damn-fine brands there, sir!

 

[mike243]

Cool, bout the closest we can get in this family is a tramp stamp or 2 probably

 

[schlotz]

Our daughter and son-in-law are ranchers. Kind of nice to have a supply of purebred wagyu beef 7 minutes up the road. parkwagyu dot com here's their brand...

 

[JckDanls 07]

I used to stay every summer at my Grandfathers place the whole summer. Dairy farm, and that is most of that valley way.
Like said above , everyone knew everyone and their stock. No branding but the mature cows all had ear tag #

And at haying time , if someone broke down , another farm was there to pitch in .
Just the right way to do it.

Thanks for taking me back for a bit, I was normally the youngest for awhile . So I got to drive the tractor and wagon while my older cousins loaded the hay on in the fields

David

That was me as well David except... It was a childhood friends parents farm... I'd live there for summer vacation and work...

We were milking 120-150 head of cow... grew all their own feed (silage and hay)...

Hay ... The worst part was stacking it in the hay loft... The guy loading the conveyor at the bottom would load it up fast as hell as guys in the loft stacking caught hell...

Had a BAD accident with the hay bailer (rectangle bails) and me... We used the old John Deere ''Popper'' (we called em) to bail with... Well... the only way up on those tractors was from the back, between seat and tire by stepping on the drawbar first... For some reason we (boss/owner/parent that was teaching me how to run it) left the bailer running (PTO on)... When I steped on the drawbar the PTO saft grabbed my pantleg and pulled my leg right into it...

Yup... Tore my leg wide open from below the knee down around the ankle... Sould have seen us trying to get both of us back up on the tractor ... Him the whole time clamping both hands around my leg trying to keep the wound closed as best as possible to get up outta the feild and to his car...

Fortunately after 150+ stitches inside and out and a full leg cast to keep from tearing stitches open my leg has never giving me any problems...

I was very fortunate... So to all that work around farm equipment please be careful...

 

[DRKsmoking]

left the bailer running (PTO on)... When I steped on the drawbar the PTO saft grabbed my pantleg and pulled my leg right into it...

Wow Keith , that is terrible. And glad you have no problems from that accident.
All the machinery my Granddad and Uncles had was older and ran ok but always iffy. So there was no real training . Showed how to turn on and off than just get to work. lol

Hated unloading in the haymow. Hot dirty and fast. And like I said I was always the little guy. So always keeping an eye on the flying bails from my bigger cousins. As I was trying to stack them right. ( I was the city kid ....target practice for them )

It was all great times and fond memories now.

Accidents can happen so fast, I remember a few years before my Uncle passed away , he was kind of retired if that is a thing on a farm. One of my cousins was and is still running the farm. Anyway as I was told uncle Joey was working with one of the MF tractors it was raining a lot so the ground was very soft. He got off the tractor to do something and the tractor started rolling , and actually rolled right over his shoulder and part of his face. Like I said ground very muddy and soft.
Tractor stopped against the barn, only rolled about 8 feet. Hurt his shoulder and cracked a bone in his face. Healed up pretty good.
If the ground was normal and dry , would have killed him . You just never know. Farming is a very dangerous job and living

David

 

[Rafter H BBQ]

Small town America. We pretty much know who owns whatever cows, calves, bulls get loose. And if someone has hay down and has equipment issues, their hay gets rolled, usually free of charge. Just how it is in my neck of the woods, and why I love it here where I call home.

Live in that kind of area here as well… very fortunate to be a small part of it! But everyone has their brands, mostly multi generation ones… and it’s not much of the someone’s gonna rustle them… more of a tradition and easy to spot who the cattle belongs too!

 

[Rafter H BBQ]

Biggest problem I have is "town" keeps getting closer. Not going to be an issue in my lifetime, but eventually it will get out here.

Facing the same issue here… I told Nicole… they get any closer and I’m building and moving up to our dry farm area… I’ll build on 160 acres where they can’t get close!

 

[Rafter H BBQ]

Cool thread Justin!

As you know, my late father was a cattleman his whole life. He and his 3 brothers - the four Green Brothers - ran the 4G brand from the mid 70's until sometime in the early 90's.

Red

Yes my friend, I really enjoyed our chat on that! That is a neat brand and with meaning behind it as well! Awesome!

 

[Rafter H BBQ]

Our daughter and son-in-law are ranchers. Kind of nice to have a supply of purebred wagyu beef 7 minutes up the road. parkwagyu dot com here's their brand...

View attachment 655835

Very cool to have that close… awesome brand as well!

 

[seenred]

That was me as well David except... It was a childhood friends parents farm... I'd live there for summer vacation and work...

We were milking 120-150 head of cow... grew all their own feed (silage and hay)...

Hay ... The worst part was stacking it in the hay loft... The guy loading the conveyor at the bottom would load it up fast as hell as guys in the loft stacking caught hell...

Had a BAD accident with the hay bailer (rectangle bails) and me... We used the old John Deere ''Popper'' (we called em) to bail with... Well... the only way up on those tractors was from the back, between seat and tire by stepping on the drawbar first... For some reason we (boss/owner/parent that was teaching me how to run it) left the bailer running (PTO on)... When I steped on the drawbar the PTO saft grabbed my pantleg and pulled my leg right into it...

Yup... Tore my leg wide open from below the knee down around the ankle... Sould have seen us trying to get both of us back up on the tractor ... Him the whole time clamping both hands around my leg trying to keep the wound closed as best as possible to get up outta the feild and to his car...

Fortunately after 150+ stitches inside and out and a full leg cast to keep from tearing stitches open my leg has never giving me any problems...

I was very fortunate... So to all that work around farm equipment please be careful...

Scary deal Keith...but glad your story had a happy ending!

Having grown up around farm and ranch equipment (tractors, bailers, mowers, harvesters, etc.), I was taught a healthy respect for proper safety when operating or being near a machine at work.

Your story reminds me of a very gruesome accident involving a close family friend - was actually my father's best friend for many years.

He was killed while brush-hogging one of his pastures. Since he was alone at the time of the accident, parts of what happened are only guesswork, but it appears he got down from his tractor while the PTO was still engaged, and an article of clothing must have been grabbed by the spinning shaft, which pulled him into the spinning brush hog blades. You can imagine how gruesome this death scene was. He was discovered a couple hours later by his oldest son...with the tractor and mower both still running.

Red

 

[Steve H]

The PTO is unforgiving. I had a friend that got caught in one. Broke his arm in 6 places.