Cattle Branding

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Cattle Branding - Mark Your Own

Cattle branding is done in order to identify one’s farm animals and establish ownership over these. This is a process usually done twice a year, during spring and fall. This ensures that each animal is marked with the code of the ranch owner.

Cattle branding makes use of a branding iron to apply the mark. The mark is an identifying design so that if ever there will be disputes, it can easily be settled. This also prevents theft, especially in the open fields.

The marks in cattle branding are unique to each rancher. Initially brands were simple initials, numbers or figures. However, the problem with such codes is that these were easily copied – and thus the emerging of a more improved designs. A plain design is ideal, and would suffice as long as it can represent the owner’s name or ranch. In cattle branding, the iron designs are recorded in a brand book that is published by the Nevada Department of Agriculture.

It is ideal that the design of the marking should not blotch and that the iron stamp should be at a certain thickness – usually about one-eighth to one-quarter inch. It should be noted that a thinner iron would slice through and injure the animals; a wider iron on the other hand would ruin the design as it makes it dull.

The process of cattle branding is usually done together with the ear marking process. Ear marking is important, as it can be a way to identify one’s cattle in bad weather or dusty conditions. The processes of castration, dehorning, vaccinations and giving of vitamins also go with the cattle branding process. These are done together in order to save time and to complete all tasks in one setting. In such cases, a group of around five people may do these tasks together.

Cattle branding is critical in the range cattle industry. It may not be required for those where the herd are kept on ranches or on fenced lots, but for those on the open field in the West, this becomes a necessity, and in fact enforceable by law - in order to achieve some degree of control in the ranching life.

Cattle branding indeed provides for a system in which identification of owned cattle becomes easy by differentiation of its markings, and any claims of ownership by another could be easily settled. Cattle branding has definitely helped create a system to establish order in the wild.