In the spring of each year, ranchers gather and brand their herds’ new recruits, continuing a tradition as old as the open grazing days of the western frontier.
For as long as cattle have roamed Montana’s vast landscape, they have carried with them a brand, the universal proof of ownership of livestock.
In Montana, brands were first officially recognized by the territorial government in 1873 and laws regulating branding were first enacted in 1885.
The ritual has long been lionized by Hollywood and marketing firms. Think Marlboro man commercials, Levi jeans billboards and all those cattle drive Western flicks. The image of an ever-rugged west.
For Andrew Bardwell, it’s not a performance, it’s a means to an end. Another part of the continual cycle of hard work required to maintain a cattle operation.
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Bardwell, the ranch manager of the LF Ranch,