CPOY 72 Domestic Picture Story Bronze: Sign of Spring
Carolyn and Russ Kucera set out to brand newborn calves on their ranch just outside of Central City, Nebraska, on April 23, 2017. With help from neighbors, friends and family, they marked their cattle with the Kucera's one-of-a-kind brand symbol, used to distinguish their cattle from anyone else's. The dusty process of branding includes roping, wrestling, vaccination and castration. Neighbors come to participate, or just to watch, and burnt skin and hair leaves a stench in the air that Mrs. Kucera describes as "a sign of spring."
Trent Brondel (right) and Tyler Olson wrestle a calf to be branded. The Kuceras say that the yearly practice of branding cattle is a “lost art.” Most ranchers around Central City run cattle through a calf cradle, a machine that holds the calves in place as they're branded. But the Kuceras still wrestle calves the old fashioned way.
