How many Kindergarten students do you know who are learning to read while learning to be businessmen or women? Our own kinder student, Mr. P, recently spent a day at the sales yard watching for his steer, Percy (out of his cow, Pudge), to be sold.

Since Mr. P is just learning to read he needed to add some sight words to his reading vocabulary so he could understand the business part of the day. To get Mr. P started off right he learned to sight read: cow, bull, heifer, steer, sale, head count, average, total price. 

Lots of Brands are Seen at the Sales Yard

While waiting for his steer to come up for auction the time was passed by learning the important info regarding brands and legal branding locations. A legal brand is proof of ownership of an animal – it can guard against cattle rustlers. Mr. P learned there are six branding positions for legal proof of ownership of cattle. They are the left or right shoulder, rib or hip.

A livestock business person must learn to read brands. The Grieb Ranch brand is a backwards G with and arrow underneath. The Willems’ brand is a lazy S over a horseshoe placed on the left hip.

This hat also sports the brands of an uncle and a niece along with the Willems’ brand and the Grieb Ranch brand. The first and last brands read bar crescent moon and crescent moon bar.  If you would like to see more livestock brands check out the online California Brand Book.

Kindergarten Business Lessons

Back to the sales auction . . . Mr. P’s steer sold and he now must calculate his profit. He must tally up all his operational expenses and apply them to the amount he received for his steer. Mr. P must understand the value of bringing quality livestock to the market. This brings repeat buyers for his livestock. Pretty big lessons for a Kindergarten-level Businessman.