Nordfork Brandgin

NORDFORK BRANDING: EASIER ON CALVES & COWBOYS

EXCERPTED FROM "COWBOY IS A VERB: NOTES FROM A MODERN-DAY RANCHER" BY RICHARD COLLINS. COPYRIGHT © 2019 BY UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA PRESS. EXCERPTED BY PERMISSION OF UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS EXCERPT MAY BE REPRODUCED OR REPRINTED WITHOUT PERMISSION IN WRITING FROM THE PUBLISHER. PHOTOS BY RICHARD COLLINS AND JAY DUSARD.

Pulling on Loose Rein, Heeler; Brent Cole

©Richard Collins

“What’s the final calf count?” I asked Ian.

“Two hundred and sixty six,” he replied, folding his tally book. It was a little past eleven at the branding corrals and the bright sunlight had Jay Dusard grumbling about too much contrast. “We sure could have used some cloud cover,” lamented the photographer. The ground crew had opened the gate and the branded calves were scampering back into the pasture to mother-up.

“Let’s see. You started branding three hours and fifteen minutes ago,” I said, whipping out my cell phone. “That makes it forty four seconds per calf.”

“Does that include the time we took getting in the second draft of calves?” Manuel asked. Manuel Murrietta was the foreman for Sands Ranch division of Ian Tomlinson’s Vera Earl Ranches that sprawled over 150,000 acres of southern Arizona’s high desert grasslands and ran 2500 cows. ‘Yep,” I replied. “That’s from start to finish.” “It helps to have three heelers and good ground crews.” Ian replied. “Especially when one roper is Harvey Jacobs,” I allowed. “Any southpaw who heels that good ought to be banned from the rodeo. Except when he’s partnered up with me.”

Manuel Murrieta Schooling the Blue Stud

©Jay Dusard

“I got some good shots of Manuel and Harvey while the light was tolerable,” Jay added. He had seen and photographed dozens of brandings from Sonora to British Columbia, but today he was seeing the Nordfork in use for the first time.

In 1999, I stumbled onto the Nordfork on a horse-buying trip to the Reeves ranch near Eagle Butte, South Dakota. Every fall, Dean and Jim Reeves had a sale of three-year-olds raised on their Cheyenne River country. Every spring Jim branded 7500 calves, all dragged to the fire on horseback. “That’s a lot of calves,” I said. “You must have a big ground crew.” “Big enough, but we also use Nordforks,” Jim replied. “What’s a Nordfork?” I asked. Jim reached in the back of his pickup and pulled out a metal frame that looked like two skeletal toilet seats, hinged in the middle and made from half inch diameter rod. One end tapered smoothly into a V with a two-foot-long handle welded to the apex. The other end was a broader V that opened wide to let the calf’s head pass through. The two Vs were hinged together in the middle. A fifteen foot long rope, broken by bungee cord, attached the broad V to a heavy spike hammered in the ground.

Heeler, Ian Tomlinson

©Richard Collins

“As the heeler drags the calf past the Nordfork, the ground man drops the broad V over the calf’s head and follows it up until the small V catches the calf behind the ears and the rope tightens up. The heeler then faces and holds his dallies while the ground crew goes to work. When you’re finished, the heeler throws slack at the same time as the ground man lifts up the handle and the calf jumps free,” Jim concluded.

“So, those four horses I just bought from you must savvy the Nordfork. I’d better take a couple of these gadgets home,” I said. Later on, the internet led me to Idaho rancher Nord Hill, who in 1991, fabricated and tested his “idea,” and has been producing them ever since.

Back home, Manuel and I took the Nordforks to Bob Hudson’s Vaca Ranch. Bob bordered my outfit on the south, at the edge of the storied San Rafael valley. We unloaded our horses at daylight and spread out over the holding pasture where Bob and his vaqueros had gathered the pairs the day before. The cows seemed to know the drill, and began bawling up their calves. We moved them into a big net-wire trap, and set up two Nordforks. Fernando Valenzuela, his son Gerardo, and Manuel, were the designated heelers, while the rest of us became the ground crew.

Bob kept the cows in with the calves during branding to reduce the stress of sorting and allow the calves to mother up immediately after branding. Even so, the mixture of cows with calves, branded and unbranded, made catching two heels more challenging, and Bob wanted the best heelers on horseback. Fernando rode a rangy roan gelding to the edge of the herd, softly swinging a sixty foot rawhide riata. He eased up to a calf and picked up two hind feet, took his dallies and towed it to the Nordfork. During that whole day, I never saw him miss a set of doubles or get in a hurry.

Gerardo and Manuel also roped, using their nylon twines. With three heelers, we had a hard time on the ground keeping up with the ropers. Now and then, one roper would have a calf heeled and on the ground, and had to wait for an empty Nordfork. I had seen these two cowboys win more than their share of fast go-rounds at the rodeos, but today they moved at a deliberate speed, schooling their young horses on how to pull and face up.

Two hours later we rode to the barn with Bob singing the praises of the Nordfork. “I have worn out my knees holding them Hereford calves down for dehorning. Now the Nordfork holds them for me.”

The Nordfork is a labor-saving tool that reduces the stress on both cattle and cowboys. On most days, branding is finished in the morning before it gets hot. On the Vera Earl Ranches, Ian and Manuel disallow any catch that’s not two hind feet, virtually eliminating injuries to calves and cowboys. With the Nordfork and heeler holding the rope tight against the bungee cord the calf can be easily rolled over to put the brand on the correct side. Also, the calf is immobilized and stays quiet for branding, vaccination and castration.

Ian Thomlinson Setting Nordfork

©Richard Collins

Nordforks are also portable. They can be set up in smallbranding traps in remote pastures. The whole herd does nothave to be gathered to a central processing location withsqueeze chutes. On smaller ranches in the Canelo Hills likemine, this saved a five-mile cattle drive with small calvesover rugged country.

Finally, the heel and drag to the Nordfork is a toolfor developing young horses and young cowboys. Therequirement for doubles forces the heeler to be precisewith both the loop and the position of the horse. They learnto move calmly through the herd and set up a calf for a goodthrow instead of charging at cattle swinging a loop like awindmill in a hurricane. The roper learns what a good throwlooks like, how to dally to the horn and move off easy-like.

With the Nordfork set in the middle of the corral, a younghorse learns to pull without panicking. Properly done, theNordfork setter calls out when the rope comes tight. Thisgives the horse and heeler a cue for the face-up, and avoidshitting the calf hard against bungee cord and ground stake.After a while, most horses anticipate the face as the ropetightens, and sets the inside hind leg for a quick pivot.

On Ian Tomlinson’s ranches, every hand gets a turn roping.This makes for a happy and productive branding crew. Theyounger cowboys have two ace heelers and horsemenin Manuel Murrietta and Harvey Jacobs as role models.Manuel is a four-time winner of Sonoita’s prestigious ranchhorse competition, riding horses he raised and trained.This branding season, he is riding a three-year-old BlueValentine colt that may have promise.

“He’s a looker, but I want to see how much bottom andbrains he’s got before I breed my mares to him,” Manueldeclared.

Richard Collins is a rancher and writer from Sonoita, Arizona. His 2015 book, Riding behind the Padre was voted a Top Ten Book of the Southwest and winner of the best political-multicultural book by the Arizona-New Mexico Book Association. His new book Cowboy is a Verb: Notes of a Modern-day Rancher will be released fall of 2019 by the University of Nevada Press.

Jay Dusard has photographed cowboys and horses from Canada to Mexico. A 1981 Guggenheim Fellowship in Photography led to his acclaimed first book, The North American Cowboy: A Portrait. He lives near Douglas, Arizona.