Cat's gone riding: Branding calves & lots of fun!

In a previous post called Black & White i explained one way of branding cattle. Often performed in front of aficionado, it is one way to brand calves and in the same time to bring some revenue to the manade.

As all Camargue (and Spanish) cattle need branding, branding 3 to 4 animals at a time in front of tourists is not how the job gets done. This week-end i was invited to the branding of 50 odd calves as part of the manade management. i was the only tourist there but naturally i gave a hand as a thank you for the invitation.

Branding allows animals to be identified. By looking at the brand we know which manade animals belong to and by looking at the number or at the letter, we know how old they are.

Branding Calves

Calves were gathered into a coral and one by one trickled through down chutes and up to a cage. From that point on, one at the time, they will receive a series of ‘treatments’.

From coral to chute

From chute to cage

First of all, they would be tagged on the remaining untagged ear.

The calf is held in place & ear tagged

Secondly they will be branded with a red hot iron with 3 numbers. As they were 1 years old, they would receive a ‘2’ to determine the year they are born into. The ‘2’ indicates the second two of 2012.
Then they would receive two more numbers determining the nth animal born of the year. For example the third born in 2012 will have a massive 203 branded on his left end flank.
I have seen in other manade a different way of administering these three numbers. The year number is located on the rump and the number of the calf on the ribs. Therefore, for the 3^rd born in 2012, the ‘2’ will be on the rump and the ‘3’ on the flank. This way, the ‘0’ is omitted making the exercise quicker not to say less painful for the animal. It was not the followed protocol that day.

two more numbers to go

The '2' indicating the calf is born in 2012 is branded.
On the picture we see that his front leg is out of the cage. The calf was ok.

The exercise continues with a red hot iron showing the manade trade mark. This will be applied on the rump.

Then come off part of the calves ears. Each manade has a distinct way of cutting the ears. The reason they do that is to recognise the animal should the manade brand be covered by mud whilst in the marshes.
They will then be administered a dose of de-wormer through the mouth and if it is one of this lucky calf, it will be castrated at the end of it all!

At this stage, the calf has had his ears trimmed, his 3 numbers branded, de-wormed,
his manade brand applied on the rump, seen clearly here.
Finally it is being gelded before being let loose.

Branding foals

The horses are branded in a similar way. In October of the year of birth, foals are gathered. They will be strangled! i have been reassured that they are just lightly strangled. All foals will received the manade trade mark on the left end side of the rump. On the right end rump, female cold will be branded with a letter determining the year of birth and by a number indicating the nth foal of the year of the manade. Male cold will receive the same letter and number on the left end side of the neck. The reason the female are marked on the rump is because traditionally, female were destined to be broodmares only. They would be untamed and therefore not often approachable. Gardians would check and identify them with binoculars from far away in their natural habitat, the marshes. Branding on the rump means their identity would always be visible and never be obstructed by the mane.

Nowadays, more manadiers take the care to manipulate the foals before branding. In a similar spirit, more mares are started under saddle before being used as a broodmares. This means that more foals are tamed before being branded standing up avoiding the considerate touch of being lightly strangled or delivered a karatee punch knock out.

The following day we were back at playing Camarguese games.