A cacophony of bellowing cattle makes it hard to hear the other hoof drop, but rancher Bruce Bird knows that it’s coming. Bird runs a cow-calf operation and had to shout to be heard during annual branding last week on his ranch near Cremona, 80 kilometres northwest of Calgary.
Over 100 calves were run through a chute and locked onto a table to have ear tags applied and a mark seared onto their sides.
The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t had a serious effect on Bird yet, but he’s anticipating it will be tougher when the calves are sold in the fall. “Absolutely, we’re going to get hit eventually,” he said. “There’s usually a big ripple effect prolonged.