Photostory #460A: Cattle Roundup

Photographers
Ted Grant
Maker
National Film Board of Canada
Release Date
January 16, 1968
Collection
CMCP fonds
Credit Line
Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography fonds, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives
Main Text
When the snow-heavy winds of winter come whistling down from the craggy mountain peaks to the north and west, Canada's ranchers - fathers, sons and hired hands - saddle up their tough wiry horses and head out on the annual cattle roundup. Dressed in traditional, but practical, cowboy clothing they ride long days from sunrise to sunset into the wild foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Here, where herds of cattle thousands strong have spent the summer feeding in isolated splendor far from man's abode, the cattlemen round up the steers, cows and calves before driving them down the long trails leading to the winter ranges adjacent to the homestead ranches. Usually a cooperative operation between several ranching families, the cowboys, after days of roundup and trail driving, eventually drive the big herd to the holdup field. Here they go to work on their sure-footed, nimble quarter horses, working the packed throng of lowing cattle to cut out the various brands. Then as each owner starts the final drive home the re-riders set off, back up the chilly trail once more, onto the very slopes of the distant mountains themselves, in one last search for the strays which have wandered far afield. But as winter sets its full force across the land, Canada's cowboy cattle roundup is finally over for another year and the herds rest safe on the homestead range.