REAL Cowboys

[Bearsixty7]

Branding was to help prevent cattle theft more than anything. If a Sale barn or butcher saw a brand, they were supposed to verify who brought the animal in and if not the person the brand is registered to, they better have a bill of sale from the brand owner and even then, they might call the registered brand owner to verify.
It also was to be proof of identity if one were to get out and on to someone else's property.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Correct. Not many fences around here...one of the reason I love living in Nevada. So cattle from different ranches get mixed together. Brandings held twice a year - spring and fall. All the ranches have people "repping" at these brandings; a calf hanging around with a branded mother gets the same brand burned on it as the mother. The brandings are actually the two big social gatherings of the year for ranch folks.

My place is surrounded by BLM land on two sides; there's a corner there where, using a few fence panels, the cowboys make a corral. They do their gather, bring the cattle in by the corral and sort them, brand them, etc. My daughter, though I owned no cows, considered herself a "cowgirl" and would spend all day at the brandings helping out with vaccinating, etc. She loved it...as I said, a big social gathering...though I've sure the calves, especially the ones who were turned into steers, didn't much appreciate it!

Open Range = no fences!
View attachment 690087

That wouldn't be going West out of Las Vegas, would it? I was there many, many years ago, drove there from LA and back.

 

[deserteagle71]

I thought you had to put up a fence around your garden to keep the cattle out. My uncle lived in open range in Colorado and he had a fence around his property to keep the cows off it.

That's correct. If you own property in an area designated as "Open Range" (most of Nevada) and don't want livestock eating up your lawn or garden or trees, it is up to YOU to fence them out. That's the law. One of the first things I had to do when I put in my house...have photos somewhere of range cattle rubbing up against my new house...was to put up a whole lot of fencing and gates.

Also, in an "Open Range" area - if you hit a cow or horse that happens to be wandering around on a highway then your insurance will have to pay the owner of the livestock the value of the animal you killed. A black Angus standing on the road at night is almost impossible to see before you run into it. Hit a cow and it will destroy your car. Hit a horse and people get killed or injured because the horse is so tall it smashes the windshield and roof. When I first moved to Nevada in the 60s all roads were in an "Open Range" designation except for the Interstates. Now there's only a few secondary paved state roads that are not fenced. All dirt roads are "Open Range".

 

[LouNY]

I can recall driving thru the Duck Valley reservation at night, that rolling road with Black Angus in several of the low spots.
Even back then those were some high priced Angus scrubs.

 

[MoKelly]

I guess out there, if you need a box of screws, it’s a long drive to the hardware store!

MoKelly

 

[2LaneCruzer]

That's correct. If you own property in an area designated as "Open Range" (most of Nevada) and don't want livestock eating up your lawn or garden or trees, it is up to YOU to fence them out. That's the law. One of the first things I had to do when I put in my house...have photos somewhere of range cattle rubbing up against my new house...was to put up a whole lot of fencing and gates.

Also, in an "Open Range" area - if you hit a cow or horse that happens to be wandering around on a highway then your insurance will have to pay the owner of the livestock the value of the animal you killed. A black Angus standing on the road at night is almost impossible to see before you run into it. Hit a cow and it will destroy your car. Hit a horse and people get killed or injured because the horse is so tall it smashes the windshield and roof. When I first moved to Nevada in the 60s all roads were in an "Open Range" designation except for the Interstates. Now there's only a few secondary paved state roads that are not fenced. All dirt roads are "Open Range".

View attachment 690311View attachment 690315

Nope. You don't want to hit a big animal like a horse...even a calf can come through the windshield.

moose hit by car, came through window - Google Search

 

[deserteagle71]

I guess out there, if you need a box of screws, it’s a long drive to the hardware store!

MoKelly

Why I don't own any cars, only pickups.

When I do make a run to the "big city", as I had to do yesterday to see my ophthalmologist, the truck comes back loaded with lumber and other supplies. Nearest Home Depot is 130 miles.......

 

[ovrszd]

Some surprising statistics:

Here are the 10 states with the highest number of cows:

• Texas (4,655,000)
• Oklahoma (2,150,000)
• Missouri (2,059,000)
• Nebraska (1,941,000)
• South Dakota (1,818,000)
• Kansas (1,529,000)
• Montana (1,448,000)
• Kentucky (1,017,000)

Horses are used here in limited quantities. Most ranching is done with a 3/4T or 1T 4x4 truck with a flat bale bed on the back or FWA tractor with bale stabber on front and back. Every rancher has a couple GN stock trailers. Every rancher's truck has GN Ball in the bed.

 

[deserteagle71]

I can recall driving thru the Duck Valley reservation at night, that rolling road with Black Angus in several of the low spots.
Even back then those were some high priced Angus scrubs.

Wow! What were you doing up there, especially at night? I'd hate to drive that road at night - bad enough in the daytime.

 

[deserteagle71]

Some surprising statistics:

Here are the 10 states with the highest number of cows:

• Texas (4,655,000)
• Oklahoma (2,150,000)
• Missouri (2,059,000)
• Nebraska (1,941,000)
• South Dakota (1,818,000)
• Kansas (1,529,000)
• Montana (1,448,000)
• Kentucky (1,017,000)

Horses are used here in limited quantities. Most ranching is done with a 3/4T or 1T 4x4 truck with a flat bale bed on the back or FWA tractor with bale stabber on front and back. Every rancher has a couple GN stock trailers. Every rancher's truck has GN Ball in the bed.

I can believe that. Remember reading somewhere that in Nevada, it takes about 2 square miles to sustain a cow. Not much grass here, mainly brush.

Horses, particularly the mustangs, are a sore spot in Nevada. Latest BLM report I saw said there are ~ 52,000 wild mustangs in Nevada alone. 2017-2019 the Nevada DOT has statistics on 240 vehicle-horse collisions, with 45 reported injuries and one death.

That 52,000 horse population greatly exceeds what the desert can sustain. There was a gruesome photo published this past fall - 110 dead horses around a waterhole that had dried up. Worse, the BLM now has over 50,000 of those wild horses that they've gathered up into holding facilities that are costing the American taxpayer ~ $18,000 a year per horse to maintain. It is against the law to slaughter wild horses so we'll be paying for each horse until it dies of old age. And, every time the BLM tries to gather up some mustangs because they've overpopulated an area to the point that they are suffering, the "Wild-horse Annie" mustang lovers are protesting and suing, saying that as long as the mustangs are wild and free that's all that matters.

Mustangs stampeding when they saw me...notice there is no grass, only sagebrush.