Branding Day on the Withers

In the Colorado cattle ranching business, this is the time of year most cowboys love. It’s time for the “Spring Works” in cowboy parlance. The Withers Ranch sets far out in the Colorado short grass prairie and looks much like it did a hundred years ago. Today is branding day, and the cowboys ride out early, gathering the cows from the big pastures and moving them into the pens to prepare for the day’s work. Daryl Waite, manager of the Withers Ranch, is a traditionalist when it comes to the cowboy trade. Today’s cattle business is a tough way to make a living and Waite works hard to make a profit for his owners and keep up the traditional cowboy lifestyle for his family and himself. Waite gives credit to the ranch owners for being “the best owners anyone could ever ask to work for.” Today they are branding about 250 head, and typical of many isolated operations, friends and families from around the area show up to help with the gather and the work in the pen. Today, the calves will be branded, inoculated, de-horned and doctored, if needed, and the bull calves will be castrated...FencePost