04/09/07 Branding time in the Owyhees

Rancher Tim Lowry spent the weekend helping neighbors, the same ones who helped him. Lowry and his cowboy neighbors spent last weekend branding 125 calves on his ranch. ORRIE LOWRY "Grandpa you're going to be happy. This one is a heifer." Orrie Lowry is an old hand at this; even at ten years of age he knows what roundup means. The ropes fly, the cowboys jump in, the fire stays stoked. Ken Travis runs the branding iron, the rancher's way of registering and identifying cattle on the range. TRAVIS "They get dehorned, castrated, branded and he's given antibiotics. After one or two days with small calves, you can't even tell anything's wrong with them. They heal real fast." The Lowry's got their calves branded in just a few hours and now they'll pitch in to return the favor and help their neighbors with branding. After a long, isolated winter ranch families use these times over the branding iron and lunch to get caught up on what's happening. Voice of Idaho Agriculture