Branding Cattle Ranching Tradition

Branding Cattle Ranching Tradition. . Branding livestock, especially cattle, has been a tradition for thousands of years. It is a technique for marking livestock so as to identify the owner. Before the widespread use of fences in large cattle ranches, cattle from neighboring ranches often mingled and it was important to know which cattle belonged to which ranchers. In the days of free roaming on the range it also was to deter cattle rustling and helped to return rustled animals to their rightful owners. In the past, law-abiding ranch hands kept hand-written and carefully illustrated "brand books" on hand to identity and sort their cattle. Today, brands are required to be registered with the state. Livestock is not required to be branded or have ear marks, but if this type of identification is used, it is required by law to be registered. Originally, livestock branding only referred to hot branding large stock with a branding iron, though the term now includes alternative techniques. Other forms of livestock identification include freeze branding, inner lip or ear tattoos, earmarking, ear tagging and radio-frequency identification (RFID), which is tagging with a microchip implant. , , Today, fencing is more prevalent but branding is still used to identify cattle. A ranch brand is part of the rich history and culture of the cattle ranching way of life. Traditionally, brands are designed with specific numbers or letters to represent the ranch and owner. Most brands in the United States include capital letters or numbers, often combined with other symbols such as a slash, circle, half circle, cross or bar. Brands of this type have a specialized language for "calling" the brand. Some owners prefer to use simple pictures; these brands are called using a short description of the picture (eg., "rising sun"). Reading a brand aloud is referred to as "calling the brand". Brands are called from left to right, top to bottom, and when one character encloses another, from outside to inside. Brands have been passed down for generations to represent a family ranch. Ranchers not only use this to identify their cattle but take pride in the brand as a representation of their ranching heritage.