OK, I got to know?

   / OK, I got to know? #11  
Electric cattle brander. The hide completes the circuit.


TOH5sVQ.jpg
 
   / OK, I got to know? #12  
The reason they still brand cattle is simply a matter of money. Ear tags are at least a dollar a piece so if you have a thousand head you are spending a thousand dollars. Given the thin margins in the cattle business, it is significant.
 
   / OK, I got to know? #13  
The reason they still brand cattle is simply a matter of money. Ear tags are at least a dollar a piece so if you have a thousand head you are spending a thousand dollars. Given the thin margins in the cattle business, it is significant.

It also allows the range riders to identify the owner from a distance vice running a scanner over it.
 
   / OK, I got to know? #14  
The reason they still brand cattle is simply a matter of money. Ear tags are at least a dollar a piece so if you have a thousand head you are spending a thousand dollars. Given the thin margins in the cattle business, it is significant.

Ear tags can also be cut/removed and replaced with a different tag whereas branding is permanent.
 
   / OK, I got to know? #15  
It's my understanding that today's branding is done using liquid nitrogen.

My horses (TB's) have a 'house brand' on their left shoulder and a month/year brand on their right (it can vary depending on the State they were born in). Standardbreds have all of this on their right shoulder.

A Pyengana dairy/cheese-factory's cattle are tagged, with the same number 'branded' on their hind quarter.

All of these brands are of the 'white, lack of pigmentation' patterns achieved by freeze-branding.
 
   / OK, I got to know? #16  
Horses are the same here, liquid nitrogen known as 'freeze branding', I believe it causes less stress too.
Ear tags are also popular with the ute driving fraternity worn as a puggaree around the Akubra, to qualify you must have a Kenworth exhaust stack, 24 driving lights and an antenna that poses a threat to low flying aircraft.
Known to frequent country shows and drinking bad liquor while falling around on the ground while listening to Slim Dusty.
 
   / OK, I got to know? #19  
In this day of ear tags, I'm kinda surprised they still brand. Of course, the largest open range around here is about 1 square mile, so maybe that's a factor.

Rustling livestock is still big business. Branding is the best way to identify your animals. Ear tags can be removed, brands cannot. Microchips for horses are also becoming common and in some cases required to compete.

https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/mythbusting-microchipping-and-positive-horse-id
 

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