Livestock Branding Is Still Done in this Modern Day

As I’ve written about my Wild Mustang, Cricket, and others of her breed, I’ve mentioned the freeze brand that marks the left side of their necks. I've included pictures, like these, so you can see what it looks like. I’ve also included the “key” that is used to read the freeze brand on Wild Horses. 

A freeze brand is a version of the old-fashioned branding with a hot iron that you read about in those old Western stories and see the cowboys use in movies about the Old West. Let me mention that some ranches actually still use hot branding irons in many regions of this country. My friends have a cattle ranch in Montana and they use the hot iron method. It is said by some that a freeze brand is a less painful and more sterile way of marking livestock for identification purposes. Don’t get me wrong, it is still a painful thing but it’s not a hot burn, it’s a cold "burn."

Brands are used to stop thievery and so ranchers and others can know who the horses belong to as they comingle out on the open range. Fencing helps too but sometimes livestock and rustlers have broken down the fencing. 

Hot and cold brands are both permanent but they work differently.

Hot brands kill all hair growth in the branded area, while cold brands kill the cells (melanin) that produce color in the skin and hair. The scar created with the hot brand is difficult to see, especially from a distance, once the hair grows around the area, especially in winter when animals' coats are thicker and longer. With a cold brand the hair grows back white at the brand mark site. It can always be seen on a darker animal, regardless of hair length or thickness, but it may not be the best way of marking a light or white colored animal. It takes about three months for the hair to grow back that bright white color within the brand site. When used on a light colored animal, the cold iron must be held to the skin longer and then it kills all hair growth similar to the hot iron and resembles the look of a brand from a hot iron.

The metals used to make the branding irons are also different, although some people believe that stainless steel can be used for either hot or cold branding. Certain metals retain heat better than others, and the same is true for cold temperatures. The metals in cold irons are melded to make the irons retain as much “cold” as possible, or to put it another way, the cold metal will heat more slowly. Copper and brass are commonly used in freeze branding.

Hot irons are super heated by a flame or fire, while cold irons are cooled in several ways: a combination of dry ice and 99% alcohol, a combination of dry ice and acetone, or the use of liquid nitrogen.

The old hot irons can cause blisters that can become infected more often than with the use of a cold freeze brand, which is said to be less painful.

Horses, cattle and even dogs are freeze branded as a means of identification. My Mustang Cricket has a freeze brand that she received from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and I finally figured out how to read it fairly accurately. The first part is a U of sorts and it simply means the horse is of the USA. The second small part, or two symbols, are the last two digits of the year of birth of that horse Cricket was born in 2001 so she has an 01 (or a = over a II). The final five or six symbols are the registration number. The first two tell you the state they were captured in. Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming all have unique codes and the “Eastern horses” are lumped into a large group. For example California is any number between 160001 – 240000. Arizona horses are numbered between 80001 – 160000. ”Eastern” horses are all between 880001-880100 regardless of the state. If a horse is captured in California, the registration number will be symbols that denote the numbers and may look like 2357607, with the 23 meaning it is from California, and the 57607 being the horse number. The last four or five numbers are the numbers of the horse, but I have not deciphered what exactly those mean.  Maybe that’s how many they’ve gathered in a given state over time so this example would be number 57,607 caught. If anyone knows that answer I am curious about it. 

Wild Horses are indeed a part of “The Old West” and the new West too. Yes I am a bit of an Old West lover and dreamer… Maybe I even romanticize it slightly…. 

Wild Mustangs each have a unique freeze brand marking the identity of that horse. I know other industries also specifically brand their horses, like the Thoroughbred Racing horses and the Arabians. I’ve heard that the Thoroughbred horses are branded on the inside of their upper lip and Arabians are branded on the right side of their necks, but I can’t say for sure.

I think it’s interesting that branding is still done, even today.