Let's talk about branding.

 We've all seen pictures, paintings, and scenes in the movies where cowboys are out with the herds, rounding up heifers and calves and warming irons in the fire. It is an iconic part of the mystic of the cowboy. To be truly honest, it's an important part of life on a ranch.

Land is important for cattle grazing. Often several ranches put their herds together. In order to identify cattle belonging to each ranch, marks were developed. The brand on a hind end is often visible from a distance making the cowboy's job of identification easier. Ear tags, which is another mark ( mainly used here in the east where cattle tend to stand on specific grazing land for each farm) can be torn off if the cattle rub against trees or brush. Electronic markings have been tried but they can be removed like ear tags.

A brand is registered to a specific ranch. It allows information to be to follow cattle as they are shipped for the meat market or purchased by another rancher. Without this information, cattle fraud or theft could bankrupt ranches.

So who takes care of all these brands?

Western states have Brand Departments. Each state will hold copies of the distinct brand, what ranch it comes from, and description of the animal. The Agri Brand goes on the right hip of the animal and is done so with as little pain as possible to the animal. These officials also use the brands to insure quality of the cattle. When a ranch registers it's brand, it must follow rules to safe guard the beef that comes to our tables and allows for a regulated industry with high quality beef.

Brands in the U. S. use capital letters, numbers, combined with slashes, boxes or other symbols.

A bar: horizontal  line over or under the letter.

A Box : a square around the letter or symbol

A Circle: a circle around the letter 

A Crazy: would be an upside down letter

A Lazy: would have the letter or number tilted 90 degrees

 

Because branding is such an iconic western image, many towns out west show off their distinct brands in restaurants, businesses and walls of buildings. Here is an example of brands known in Mitchell County West Texas on a building in Colorado City, Texas. This picture was taken by Billy Hathorn.