Branding Irons and Brands

If you Google "history of branding," what you get is a list of the history of branding products.  That's all about marketing things. 



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The word "brand" itself comes from the English and referred to a burning stick or "firebrand."  In ancient times, in Rome, brands were chosen that represented magic spells intended to protect the branded animal from harm.  By the Middle Ages the definition of the word had pretty much transitioned to the mark left on animals as proof of ownership.  Spain had a lot of free-range cattle raising, and the concept of branding migrated to that country, too.  Their vaqueros brought the idea over to America's desert southwest and refined it into what most people think of today as the branding process.



Some Arizona Brands and Branding Irons

From America, branding to prove ownership showed up in Australia by 1866.  Branding was useful anywhere there were large free-range areas.  It allowed one owner's cattle to mingle with another all season on shared land until it was time to ship them to market.  At that time every ranch hand would join together, round up all the cattle, take them in to fenced areas, and then sort them out by brand.

Leather suppliers would really prefer that a branding iron not be used because it diminishes the value of a hide.  (I know also that European cow hides are more valuable than American southwestern hides because of the damage Mesquite thorns, cactus, and ticks do to the surface of hides.)  Tanners call a hide with no brands, "native."  A Colorado brand (also known as a "Collie") means the hide was branded on the side of an animal, butt branded (obviously) means the animal was branded on the rump.

A branded calf was like money in the bank back in the day.  The brand design itself was considered personal property and subject to sale, transfer, mortgage or lien.  Today, many of our western states have strict laws regarding brands, including brand registration, and require brand inspections.  If a brand is not recorded by a designated time it is legally "lost."  At the end of the next year, someone else can pick up that brand and register it.

Cattle rustlers would have to alter a ranchers original brand if they wanted to sell the cattle they rustled.  If they were caught driving cattle with someone else's brand they would be subject to "immediate" justice (taken to a hanging tree!)  You had to have a steady hand to change a brand without smudging it.  It took a lot more skill than just slapping a new brand on an unmarked calf.  Sometimes they used what was called a "running iron" because it was run along the hide to burn the hair off and permanently leave a mark thereby changing the design of an existing brand.  Other times a very clever rustler would design a brand to fit over and incorporate the existing brand to the new design.  If they were caught before a new brand had a chance to heal they were as good as dead, too, because it was tremendously obvious what was new and what was "seasoned."

Freeze branding is a newer method, but it's a whole lot more complicated to accomplish, and in some places doesn't even constitute a legal brand.  It's also slower, more expensive, and even harder to get a good clear result.  A brass or copper iron is submerged in liquid nitrogen or dry ice to get the freezing part ready, but that's the easy stuff.  After that is when it gets pretty tricky.  The area to be branded has to be clean shaven because the hair is too good of an insulator to allow the cold to reach the skin.  Then the skin has to be disinfected.  Once that's done, the iron can be laid to the skin.  For how long you ask?  Well, that depends on the type of animal, thickness of skin, type of iron, type of coolant, even the color of the animal's hair.  Why the color?  Because the freezing is intended to kill the pigment-producing hair cells causing the hair to grow in white.  If the animal's hair is naturally light colored then the iron has to be applied longer to actually creating scar tissue that will show as an actual brand.  So, while all of these other factors are being taken into consideration, the guy holding the branding iron has to keep a steady hand, too.  Like I said, complicated.  In America, the Federal government uses the freeze branding method to mark wild mustangs found on BLM land.

Mostly today earmarks are used rather than branding irons.  Ears can carry a particular notch, punch, tattoo or clip, or be tagged with a metal marker.  Some high tech ranchers are using micro-chips for tracking purposes.  That oughta make a round-up easier!  Besides, free range areas are pretty uncommon today.  Most grazing land is marked off using the "Devil's rope," or barbed wire.