Branding

For et par weekender siden, var vi til branding hos Ernst & Sherrys nabo. Der fik vi rigtig oplevet "det vilde vest" med cowboys og det hele!! Rigtig sjovt at vaere med til. 

Vi tog afsted sammen med Ernst og datteren Jette foerst paa eftermiddagen, for at give en hjaelpende haand til bandingen. Der var i alt omkring 20 hjaelpere, hvoraf nogle havde den vigtigt opgave at supervisere. Da vi ankom var foerste hold kalve allerede i yarden og vi gik hurtigt igang. 

A couple of weekends ago we went to a branding at Ernst & Sherry neighbor. There we really experienced the "wild West" with cowboys and everything!! Really great to be a part of. 

We went there along with Ernst and their daughter Jette. All in all we were about 20 people helping out, of which some had the very important assignment of supervising! The first group of calves was already in the yard when we got there and we got started pretty quickly. 

Foerste kalv til at faa det overstaaet! 

First calf to get it over with! 

Alle mand i yarden havde en bestemt opgave. 

Everyone had a certain job. 

Ernst laver et flot W paa en kalv. 

Ernst gives one calf a pretty W. 

The ropers in action. 

Per og Jette wrestler en kalv, mens den faar den store omgang. 

Per and Jette are wrestling a calf while it gets the big treatment. 

Ud over at blive braendemaerket, bliver kalvene ogsaa vaccineret og tyrekalvene bliver kastreret. 

Besides beeing branded, the calves are also vaccinated and the bulls gets castrated. 

Efter de foerste par kalve faar Per fast job med et af braendejernene, sammen med Ernst og en tredje mand. 

After the first few calves, Per gets a job with one of the branding irons, along with Ernst and a third man. 

Er det mon min kalv...? :) 

Is that my calf...? :) 

Helle faar ogsaa lov til at proeve at braendemaerke et par kalve. 

Helle also gets to try to brand a couple of calves. 

Det faerdige resultat. 

The finished product. 

Andet hold bliver lukket ind. 

The second crowd is being let in the yard. 

Denne gang har Per jobbet ved en af boejlerne. I stedet for at to mand skal holde hver kalv, bruger de en boejle, som fastholder kalven. 

This time Per gets the job at one of the forks. Instead of having two people wrestling a calf, they are using a fork, to hold the calf. 

De dygtige ropers. De bruger lasso til at fange kalvene om bagbenene og derfra bliver de fastholdt i boejlen. 

The great ropers. They are using lassos to catch the calves around the backlegs and from there they are being held in the fork. 

Per  og Jette wrestler lige en enkelt en igen. 

Per and Jette are wrestligt a single one again. 

Tired...! 

En der lige skal proeve en lille omgang rodeo, som afslutning paa dagen :) 

One guy just had to try a little rodeo at the end of the day :) 

Da alle kalve var faerdige - i alt ca 150 - stod den paa middag for alle mand hjemme paa farmen. Der fik vi proevet Prairie Oysters, som var de friske kalve testikler, stegt paa panden. Anderledes, men overraskende godt - saa laenge man ikke taenkte alt for meget over hvad man tyggede paa!! :) 

Rigtig god og sjov dag paa praerien! 

When we had branded all the calves - about 150 - everybody went to have dinner at their farm. There we tried Prairie Oysters, which was fresh calf testicles, panfried. Different but surprisingly good - as long as you didnt think too much about what you were eating!! :) 

A really great and fun day at the prairie! 

Blandet fra farmen

Hermed får i lidt blandede billeder fra farmen, i løbet af den første måneds arbejde der. 

Here comes some photos from the first month of work at the farm. 

De fine antiloper, som er alle vegne omkring farmen. De er ret fine, men desværre mest bare et skadedyr for dem, da de ødelægger afgrøder og hegn. 

The pretty antilopes, which we see all around the farm. They are really pretty, but unfortunately they don't like them here, because the wreck the crops and the fences. 

Per hjælper til ved kunstgødningsblanderen. 

Per helps out at the fertilizer blender. 

Meen det er Helle der styrer showet her! :) 

But Helle is the boss here! :) 

En lille gopher. Sjovt lille dyr, som er alle vegne. 

A little gopher. A funny animal and they are all over the place. 

Nogle af deres ca 80 køer. 

Some of their about 80 cows. 

Værkstedet. 

The work shop. 

En af de fire store lastbiler (eller road tractors, som de også kalder dem..) på farmen. De bliver brugt til at køre gødning ud til kunder og i såningen, til at køre såsæd og gødning ud til såmaskinen. 

One of the four big trucks (or road tractors, as they also call them..) on the farm. They are used to haul fertilizer to costumers and during seeding they haul seed and fertilizer to the seeder. 

En af de store opgaver på farmen omhandler kunstgødnings forretningen, så meget af tiden går med at flytte gødning fra opbevaringssiloer til de siloer der blandes fra. 

One of the big jobs on the farm is the fertilizer business, so a lot of the time we are shifting fertilizer from the storage bins to the bins from which we do the blending. 

Et kig ned til Seans hus, værksted og kornsiloerne. 

A look at Seans house, the workshop and grain bins. 

Så skal den selvkørende sprøjte gøres klar, med tvillingehjul. 

Time to get the sprayer ready - putting the twin wheels on. 

Et andet job har været at få gravet en ny cisterne ned til Sean - først blev vi sat til at grave ned til cisternen med et par håndskovle, meeen det fik vi ham heldigvis hurtigt overbevist om at det ville tage lidt lang tid. Den var lidt dybere nede end han regnede med :) 

Another job has been to put in a new cistern for Sean - at first Sean got us to dig our way to the top of the cistern by hand, but we pretty quickly got him convinced that that would take quite a long time. It was a little deeper down than he expected :) 

Endelig ved at være på plads! 

Finally getting it in place! 

Pat har det store overblik :) 

Pat is supervising :) 

Ear tagging!

Fredag d. 19. april skulle der arbejdes med køer og kalve. Der var kommet omkring 50 kalve, ud af 80, men fordi såningen var lige om hjørnet, skulle kalvene øremærkes nu. Først skulle alle køerne ind i fangefold og skilles fra kalvene, derefter fik køerne tjekket øremærker, inden det var tid til at koncentrere sig om kalvene. 

On fridag April 19th it was time to work a little with the cattle. We had had about 50 calves out of 80, but because seeding was about to start, we had to get the calves eartagged now. First of all we got all the cows in the yard and got them seperated from the calves. Then we checked all the cows eartags before it was time to concentrate on the calves. 

Der var kommet nogle hjælpere i dagens anledning - så vi var os to, Pat (chefen), Sean (chefens søn) og fire af Seans fætre; Colin, Kolton, Justin og Chance. 

We got some helpers on the day - so we were the two of us, Pat (the boss), Sean (the boss' son) and four of Sean's cousins; Colin, Kolton, Justin and Chance. 

Alle havde hver sin opgave - da Helle lige skulle lege fotograf, overtog Kolton hendes job, som kalve-wrestler. 

Everyone had a job - since Helle was taking a few photos, Kolton took over her job as a calf-wrestler. 

Pat holdt styr på øremærkerne, Sean satte øremærker i, Colin vaccinerede, Kolton kastrerede, Justin og Chance holdt kalvene, ligesom os. 

Pat sorted out the eartags, Sean put in the eartags, Colin was vaccinating, Kolton castrated, Justin and Chance was holding the calves, lige we did. 

In action :) 

Sean sætter øremærker i. 

Sean is eartagging. 

Resultatet - en masse fine kalve med nye øremærker! 

Da den hårde del af arbejdet var overstået, var det tid til at fejre, så Sean inviterede os alle sammen hjem til ham, hvor vi spiste og skyllede støvet ned! 

The end result - lots of good looking calves with new eartags! 

The hard part of the job was done and it was now time to celebrate, so Sean invited us all back to his place, where we had dinner and celebrated with a few cold ones.