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Branding cattle is a tradition that goes back to the days of the Old West when ranchers marked their cattle to protect them from rustlers. Rustlers aren't as prevalent as in the old days, yet by law cattle owners must still make their mark to show ownership.

George Johnson of Camas Prairie likes to brand his cattle the old-fashioned way, with cowboys on horseback, throwing ropes and wrestling the animal to the ground for the hot iron. Though many ranchers use a calf table, several others in Camas Prairie and Hot Springs brand the traditional way. “We used to use it when we were little, but then we got big enough to rope them,” said Steve Johnson, one of George's two sons who helped with Saturday's branding operation. Steve said calves seem to get more injuries with the calf table method.

Branding day is also a social event, said George, who had 24 family members, friends and neighbors volunteering their time to help with the day-long event. In turn, many of them will help other neighbors in the upcoming weeks with their branding, which kicks off about this time of year each spring.

The operation began the day before when a few men on horseback rounded up the cows and calves from around the 500-acre ranch. “Dad don't like using 4-wheelers around his cows; that's what horses are for,” said Steve.

Saturday morning began with the inoculation of 150 adult cows, which were put through a squeeze shoot system, similar to an assembly line. As nine cows went through at a time, Craig Lien of Camas Prairie and Shannon Clairmont of Polson, gave them their shots. Once complete, the crew put a group of calves into a pen to begin branding. Steve followed with an anti-lice and fly-control liquid, which was poured on the animal's back.

Among the volunteers were six high school students, whose job was to wrestle the calves down and position them for the iron. One of the students was 18-year-old Linnea Lindvall, a Swedish exchange student attending her junior year at Hot Springs High School.

“I got her at the slave auction,” said Sheila Matt, George's daughter, who had 16 calves for branding this year. Each year, Hot Springs High School holds an auction to raise money for the school. The students usually do odd jobs for the high bidders. Matt bought Lindvall for $70 at the February auction. She also said that by bringing an attractive girl on branding day, she'd get more boys to volunteer. But she admitted that the other Hot Springs students - Carter Farrier, Drew Flagen, Aubray Russell, and Michael Brooks, her son, - would have helped anyway. Riley Charlo of St. Ignatius High School, also volunteered to help, as he has done for several years.

Once a group of calves was placed into a staging pen, five men on horseback went in and roped a calf by its back legs, then dragged them out into an open area where one of the teenagers got the calf in position for a tick and de-wormer shot by Sue Hancock and its brand by Mike Matt, George and Steve. Matt, 67, who performed most of the branding, has been doing it for more than 20 years.

Lindvall said she had never seen a branding before and had a good time, with the exception of the smell of burning fur. The 14-year-old Russell, who weighed about 115 pounds, had a little trouble pinning down some of the 200-pound calves.

Periodically, the mother cows, which were constantly bawling for their young, moved up close to where the branding took place and had to be chased away.

George, 69, said he insists that the ropers make sure they get both back legs. “It saves a lot of work for the rastlers,” said George, a retired truck driver, who, along with his wife Lauraine, have had the ranch since 1972.

Branding irons were kept hot throughout the operation. Matt said he could usually get two, sometimes even three calves, before the iron got too cool. George's brand was a “lazy question mark on its side,” which looked like a question mark without the period. Sheila's cows were marked with an M 7 mark. Each brand, depending on how hot the iron was, took between 10-20 seconds.

The 160 branded calves were born in February and March, but they also branded just over a dozen yearlings, which were put in a squeeze chute and branded in a standing position. Branding was done shortly after 4 p.m. The only problem came when one of the calves ran off with the rope still attached to one back leg. It took about 15 minutes for Brooks to chase it down and retrieve the rope.

“But the hardest work's on the cook,” said George of Lauraine, who cooked a large meal for the volunteers. “If I don't feed them good, they won't come back next year,” joked Lauraine.