Silver
Well-known member
Our community has far less people in it than it used to as small outfits get taken up by bigger ones. So now you'd have to recruit a good percentage of wrestlers from town.
I quit the rope and drag (and branding altogether) a few years ago. Started turning into a spectator sport, the folks on lawn chairs began to outnumber the crew. And everyone planned on getting fed. Which isn't to say that a lot of people didn't bring a dish of some sort.
Between that, worrying about the weather, if there was enough food, what to do with the food if we got rained out, the time used up that could be more wisely allotted elsewhere, if there was going to be enough help, too much help…
Personally the only good reason I can think of to work calves at that age is for the vaccinations. I don't run in a community pasture where branded calves are required. Calves are tagged and RFID tagged, casterated and vaccinated at birth. Replacement heifers are branded before turnout.
I quit the rope and drag (and branding altogether) a few years ago. Started turning into a spectator sport, the folks on lawn chairs began to outnumber the crew. And everyone planned on getting fed. Which isn't to say that a lot of people didn't bring a dish of some sort.
Between that, worrying about the weather, if there was enough food, what to do with the food if we got rained out, the time used up that could be more wisely allotted elsewhere, if there was going to be enough help, too much help…
Personally the only good reason I can think of to work calves at that age is for the vaccinations. I don't run in a community pasture where branded calves are required. Calves are tagged and RFID tagged, casterated and vaccinated at birth. Replacement heifers are branded before turnout.