I'm really excited to share some photos and observations from my recent trip to the Kokernot o6 Ranch located between the cities of Alpine and Ft. Davis, Texas. At over 150,000 acres, the o6 is one of Texas' biggest ranches, stretching from near Alpine all the way to Interstate 10 near Balmorhea! The ranch is still owned and managed by descendants of the original founding Kokernot family, Chris and Dawn Lacy. What makes a trip to the Kokernot during spring branding season so memorable is the fact that they still use the same techniques and methods perfected by their Old West ancestors. At a time when many large-scale cattle operations are using helicopters to herd their cows, cowboys on horseback still span out onto the open range to gather the herd for branding calves on the Kokernot o6 Ranch. 

I'm going to break up this story into three parts for my blog since there's so much to cover: Part One is the organizing and preparation stage that starts at the base camp before dawn. Part Two will show herding of the cows to the branding location, and the cowboys "working the herd" before the final group of cows and calves are brought into the branding pens, and Part Three will be all about the branding process.

So Let's get started!