BIG CYPRESS — Hurricane Elsa and other scattered thunderstorms didn’t stop calf shipping in Brighton and Big Cypress from July 5th to July 15th. Every year, rain or shine, the calves get shipped out to feedlots around the country.

The annual two-week shipping event marks the end of a year in which cattle owners cared for the calves and kept them healthy and well fed. After a year of hard work, tribal owners sold 3,744 calves, which will spend a few months eating with the express purpose of putting on weight. When they reach about 1,350 pounds, the cattle will be sent to market.

This year, about half of the animals were sent to one buyer in Kansas, the rest went to lots in Florida, Iowa, Nebraska and Ohio. It took 38 truckloads to ship the animals. The average weight of Brighton calves was 483 pounds; in Big Cypress the average was 467.

The tribe’s Natural Resources director Aaron Stam was involved with calf shipping during his years as a livestock/4-H extension agent and federally recognized tribal extension agent for the tribe, but this year he was the one in charge.

“Calf weights were down,” Stam wrote in an email. “The averages were 30-40 pounds less than last year. It was a bad winter for grass and forages, translating into lighter calves.”

It takes more than just 64 cattle owners to ship the animals; it also takes plenty of help from family members and crews of cowhands to get the cattle in from the vast pastures. Once in the owner’s cow pens, the calves are separated from the cows, loaded onto cattle trailers and taken to the pens in Big Cypress or Brighton.

The pens in Big Cypress were crowded with calves and cowhands July 14, including Summer Work Experience Program participant Makayla Torres, who wants to have her own herd one day.

“I want to follow in my papa’s footsteps,” said Torres, the granddaughter of Carl Baxley.

Torres, soon to be a senior at Ahfachkee School, was a natural in the pens and fearlessly herded the cattle into the pens for weighing and ultimately for shipping.

Once all the owners’ calves were weighed and sorted, some were kept as replacement heifers for the herds; someone had to go retrieve calves from the Board’s pasture. The task was left to Josh Jumper, Naha Jumper, Happy Jumper, a couple of kids and a few other men, who all mounted horses and galloped away with some dogs to herd the cattle into a holding pen.

The Board’s pasture is large and dotted with hammocks and none of the Jumper brothers had been in that pasture for about 10 or 15 years. Josh Jumper was hopeful but noncommittal about how many animals they would be able to corral. As the group of eight rode away, only the sound of hooves on turf, insects and birds could be heard.

As they tried to move the herd, a few animals broke away and fled into the woods. Shortly afterwards, Big Cypress cattle foreman Andre Jumper rode in to help find those cattle. By the end of the roundup, they brought about 90 animals into the Big Cypress cow pens for shipping.