Ranchlands: The Branding (Episode 2) | History

in order to preserve traditions you have to live them you can only tell the story of how you used to do things for so long I see myself as a rancher who this part of lamb inseparable from the animals in the landscape that's the way I was brought up ranching and that's why as I looked ahead saw it as the only way that I wanted to live my life you brandings are probably the most social time of year for ranches time when neighbors get together and work together as a team help each other the most of all we have fun so this week we're gonna be branding five or six hundred calves we're gonna be camping out deep into the ranch for a few days so we're just gonna have one hell good man branding is the most exciting part of the year because that's when everybody comes together and branding gives the ranch like a whole new sense of teamwork when Duke told me we'd be doing two to day branding camping the trip the first week I got there I was pretty excited when we form a line everybody's got to back each other up okay don't lag behind you always look at me always look at Michael no matter what it's a pretty cool atmosphere you wouldn't find that I don't think in a lot of other places people that are excited to get up to work people are excited to work together I remember telling my wife she kind of did a double-take what time you gotta get up I said 3:00 and you want to do that and said heck yeah I mean that's what I'm talking about that's that cowboy culture that's so very important that's something special we're very happy that we're in a position where we can do things the traditional way to be living these traditions the same way that our fathers did and so when we go out and make a camp it means we can accomplish a lot more over the span of two days and it puts us closer in touch with what's going on out there last breakfast typically when a branding day will ride out early in the morning try to get all the cattle and their mother DUP with their calves get them all into a central gathering place the objective is to get all the calves branded as soon as possible so they can get back to where they live yeah we start a wood fire and start heating the iron in the meantime all the Cavs are settling the cows are laying down and then from there you're usually put in more experienced ropers to pull the calves off from the outside without stirring things up and then on the ground you need people who are physically tough they can take that wild animal and lay him on the ground without hurting him or themselves and then holding him there while that animals being processed branded castrated dehorn whatever we have to do so when that first calf is brought in everyone has to understand what their job is and to do it in a quick and efficient way ah nicely does need water out here ran front Oh grabbin cattle branding began because of cattle rustling originally just a mark of ownership you put that brand on that animal in that animals yours until you sell it you don't want to carry on bad genetics so we castrate our commercial studio in all our commercial steers because you lose a lot of money selling them commercially if they develop horns typically they get shipped around the bust and they'll get in tight spaces and horns were often bruised and end up wasting a lot of the me what we believe in here what we practices low-stress livestock handling it's our responsibility to make it as easy as we can on them we bring the cows in together we don't take them into the corral so you hold them around a watering hole take them to the corral you got to take the whole herd in they got to separate the calves you got to work them in the real stress on the calves is being separated from the mother it's really not stressful for the calves they're on the ground for usually no longer than two minutes and then they run back and find their moms rather than being in a chute and being separated in a pen and then being super hectic oftentimes if you watch someone rope a calf the mother will fall it all the way to the fire and be smelling it while it's being branded or processed if you can release that animal and that animal be back in the herd back with its mother back in its natural environment immediately the pressure just goes to zero like the beginning there we need other brand I think what makes this Philips Eenie is their humility they didn't inherit a bunch of money they have to make a living at this we have to get the job done but at the same time they take time for certain things that other guys wouldn't take time to do they have a passion for people wanting to learn and for teaching just got to go in there like a little linebacker you're going to be people coming in and take you out you don't care hurry up I got to work really closely with my dad so he taught me a lot of things that probably still don't even recognize he's completely mentored all of us and made us love ranching by not forcing us to do it and showing us how much he loves it part of ranching for me is that it's very multi-generational so the things that I know I know because I was talking but my father and my father by his grandfather's so when I'm out ranting a calf and I see my son shoot this incredibly beautiful loop and catch this calf and bring him back and then I see my daughter grab that calf and put him on the ground or I see my kids doing things that I was taught but my father manages there's no feeling like on your mark get set go Oh we had a good branding this year ovens a nice camp and it was pretty focused on what we had to get done so you see a lot of people out there giving it everything they have and appreciating what everybody else is given and having each other's backs that's pretty huge and that's pretty special that's something I appreciate you Duke has a unique way of looking at ranching in a very modern way but he has this ability to constantly look at am i doing it right I'm gonna take what I know and what my dad and his dad taught me and I'm gonna make sure that's still doing it right for the land I work on for the people who work with me in the community of Mo Carter the traditions that have been handed down by our ancestors are very important to us this is bigger mission preserving past that's what we know and that's who we are a drought came in 2010 in the last three years an exceptionally dry you start thinking how my mother survived you

Channel: HISTORY

Views: 236,806

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Keywords: history, history channel, history shows, history channel shows, ranchlands, watch ranchlands, ranching, herding, cattle, branding, bison, duke phillips, san luis valley, colorado, PLob1mZcVWOajNl3_AC5JvpZW0HMAwukxV

Id: CIGxnapz07M

Length: 11min 51sec (711 seconds)

Published: Mon May 16 2016