In western states where pastures are large and many cattle spend time on rangeland, it’s not always easy to keep track of them.  Proof of ownership is necessary, to separate one rancher’s cattle from the neighbor’s cattle, and to prevent cattle theft.  The only legal mark for proof of ownership in most states is a hot-iron brand, though freeze brands are now recognized in some states.  Some producers also use freeze brands for individual ID within herds—using a system of numbers on the hip or shoulder.

Brands have always played an important role in the livestock industry, especially in western states.  A brand is the owner’s mark of identification, showing that the animal is the legal property of a certain individual or ranch. 

Joe Lichtie (Superior Livestock) has seen many kinds of brands over the years in his work with cattle auctions.  “Hot iron branding is used all over the U.S. but mainly in the West, including Texas, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.  Freeze branding is mostly used on purebred cattle and horses,” says Lichtie.

History of Branding

Branding as a means of owner identification is a very old practice.  The Chinese branded their cattle long before the time of Confucius--the Chinese philosopher who lived about 500 B.C.  The herdsmen of Israel (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc.) also branded their livestock.  The practice may have originated in ancient Egypt; paintings in Egyptian tombs dating back to 2000 B.C. show cattle with brand markings.  The Greeks and Romans branded slaves for identification.  Later some countries, such as England, branded criminals.

The practice of branding livestock came to North America when Spaniards brought the first cattle; Cortez brought horses and cattle to this continent in 1519.  He branded his cattle with the famous “three Christian crosses”--the earliest brand in North America.

“Superior did a video piece on branding, and in our research we discovered that the old missions in California branded their cattle with irons depicting a symbol of their mission,” says Lichtie.

In early days of the West, cattle brands were recorded by region.  Early cattlemen of the Southwest used the same system of brand recording used by ranchers in Mexico; each brand was burned onto a piece of tanned leather and the pieces were strung on a wire.  The string of brands was filed by the county recorder.  Written on the back of each piece of leather was a description of the brand, its location on the cow, the name of the owner, and the date of recording.  A tremendous number of brands were invented, recorded and used in the West; Colorado alone had more than 12,000 cattle brands registered by 1885.

The use of similar brands by different cattle owners in different counties (especially counties next to one another) led to problems—particularly after the 1880’s, when railroads made it possible to ship large herds of cattle to eastern markets.  Dishonest men could take advantage of similar brands and ship some of these cattle along with their own.  To remedy the situation, the Territorial Legislatures ruled that all brands should be registered with the territorial livestock board rather than with each individual county.

How it Works

Today, brands are registered by states, except in Texas where they are still registered by counties.  Ranchers pay a brand fee every few years to keep their brand registered.  A brand inspector hired by the state must inspect all cattle being sold, to check the brands and make sure the cattle are all owned by the person selling them. 

Brands no longer in use are discontinued and can be registered by someone else.  Anyone can register a brand by paying the initial registration fee and the subsequent brand fees, so long as his proposed brand does not duplicate one of the many thousand already in use in that state.

A good brand is one that is easy to read, and simple.  A complex brand will blotch on the animal’s hide if it has intricate lines and acute angles.  A brand should be easy to see and read by a brand inspector or neighbor, or anyone else having reason to read the brand to try to determine ownership of the animal.  The object of branding is to establish ownership, and if a brand is not legible this defeats its purpose.

A legally registered brand is acceptable evidence that the animal bearing that brand is the property of the brand owner, unless covered by a bill of sale or other proof of ownership.  A brand is regarded as personal property and can be sold or traded.

Due to the large number of brands already recorded, certain requirements have to be met before a new brand can be issued.  The brand recorder checks the suggested location, since location on the animal makes as much difference as the brand itself.  One brand can be similar to another person’s brand if it is on a different place on the cow.  A brand can only be placed on the animal where specified by the brand certificate.  In many states it is illegal to brand livestock unless that brand is registered with the state brand board or brand inspector.

Brands can be on the jaw, neck, shoulder, ribs, thigh or hip for cattle.  Sheep can be branded with a hot iron on the face, or a paint brand on either side.  Horses are usually branded on the thigh or shoulder.  In the Old West, many horses were branded on the jaw or hip so the brand could be easily seen in a large herd when horses were grouped together.  Due to custom, many horse brands are on the left.  Anyone using the horse could not fail to see the brand and know whose horse it was.

Brands help deter rustlers and horse thieves, since most western states require a brand inspection when animals are sold.  Brand inspectors match the visible brands on the animal’s body (and ear tattoos and other forms of identification) with paperwork on the animal to make sure the seller is the legal owner.  Brand inspectors take an active role in finding strays, looking for owners, and helping track down stolen animals.  They work closely with law enforcement agencies.  For instance, one Oregon brand inspector investigated a draft horse’s brand after the new owner could not produce papers matching it, and found that the horse was stolen 3 years earlier.

A lot of branding is still done with a stamp iron heated in a fire.  A stamp iron is a piece of metal bent and welded into the shape of the brand, and equipped with a long handle.  If the edge if the iron is the right width and heated properly in a fire, it burns the brand design onto the cow or calf in about a second.  Branding irons for horses are made of thinner metal since horses have thinner skin; when branding a horse the iron is touched to the skin for a very brief instant.

Some ranchers still do it the traditional way, roping calves from horseback, with a ground crew hold them down for branding, dehorning, vaccinating, and castrating.  Other ranchers use chutes and calf tables, no longer needing to rope an animal or wrestle the calves.  Cows are usually branded in a squeeze chute, and calves in a small chute that can be tipped on its side.

Some ranchers use electric branding irons, no longer needing a fire and keep it hot.  Other identification systems are sometimes used for individual identification of cattle and herd records--such as freeze branding, ear tags, brisket tags, neck chains with numbers, lip and ear tattoos, horn brands (traditionally used for individual ID on purebred horned Hereford cattle), etc. 

Other Traditional and Innovative Ways to Mark Cattle

Before the advent of ear tags, brisket tags, etc. ranchers came up with ways to differentiate their cattle from their neighbor’s animals, and some innovative marks for in-herd identification. 

Some of the traditional methods for ownership ID included earmarks and skin wattles.  An earmark (split ear, undercut ear, ear notch or tip cut off) or a dangling piece of skin along the underside of the neck could be readily seen from a distance, even if you were not close enough to see the brand on the animal.

Bill Clymer, a Texas rancher, says he uses an ear notch (a small notch at the tip of the left ear) because this can be done when a calf is born and a person can always tell who the calf belongs to if it might be awhile before the calf gets branded.  “Then if he loses his ear tag, he still has the ear notch.”  All of his rodeo bucking bulls are marked with his ranch brand and also branded with an individual number that matches their registration papers. 

Lichtie says ear-notching is still used a lot in east Texas and the Southeastern part of the U.S.  “Some of the most intriguing methods I’ve seen are the earmarks in Florida, dating back to the Spaniards.  Today the Seminole tribe in Florida uses earmarks for owner ID.  Different families run cattle together and sell them in truckload lots, checking earmarks for ownership when they weigh the cattle.  There’s not much branding done there; a friend of mine told me that 95% of the cattle are earmarked instead.  The earmarks are also utilized to differentiate steers from heifers, or whether the cattle have had vaccinations or have been boostered, etc.” explains Lichtie.

Tommy Mann, a Superior rep in Florida, says the Seminole tribe uses a combination of brands and earmarks to show ownership.  “The brand is the legal ID but the earmarks are a lot easier to see sometimes.  And by using both, the owner has more surety.  Ranchers often earmark the calves when they are small, and may not brand them unless they decide to keep them in their herd.  If they sell the calf they don’t brand it,” he says.

“The Seminole families have their separate herds, but their replacement heifers all run together until they are 2 years old.  At one place they have about 40 different cattle owners and on the other reservation they have about 30—so there are about 70 different earmarks and brands,” says Mann.  He managed the Seminole cattle from 1972-1990 and then went to work for Superior.

“There’s a variety of earmarks.  Some are a triangular notch out of the end of the ear--called a swallowfork--and if the end of the ear is cut off it’s called a crop.  A little notch in the bottom of the ear is an underbit.  At the top of the ear it’s called an upperbit or an overbit.  A fishhook underbit is more sloping and doesn’t go clear to the end of the ear—so it looks like a fishhook.  An underslope starts at the back of the ear and comes out toward the end of the ear.  A ‘sharp’ comes clear to the end, making the end of the ear look like a point.  One of the larger ranches here in the early1900’s had a sharp, sharp—one on each ear,” says Mann.

“Most cattlemen use a combination of marks.  They may have a left ear with a crop and a split, and the right ear has a crop and an underbit or underslope.  There are many different combinations.  Some people use a crop and two splits (they take the end of the ear off and put 2 splits in what’s left),” he says.

“Earmarks and brands go together when you register a brand, even though the brand itself is the only legal mark.  You see all kinds, and some really unique earmarks sometimes, and some unique brands, too.  Some of our brands here are very old because some of the first cattle brought to North America by the Spanish came to Florida,” says Mann.

“Today, many people here mark the steers different from the heifers when they work the calves.  They might crop an ear on steers and put a swallowfork on heifers.  Whatever they use, they mark them different, which makes it a lot easier to sort the calves,” he says.

Before the advent of plastic/nylon ear tags some ranchers used metal tags.  Monroe Magnuson, a Utah rancher, remembers gathering and collecting metal ear tags as a child-- tags he found at the range association sorting pens where the cattle came off Forest Service allotments in the fall.  He had some tags in his collection from the 1940’s and ‘50s.

“The most easy-to-see mark in our part of the country was the wattle—though very few people use these today.  Our wattle (no longer in use) was on the shoulder.  On my mother’s side of the family, the ranchers all had wattles on the brisket, dewlap or chin.  I remember helping my uncle work calves when I was a kid, and I hated to wattle the calves on the brisket because it was a bloody job.  But it was sure easy to identify those cattle from a distance, from either side.  Here in Utah I’ve seen wattles between the eyes, on the cheek, 2 side-by-side on the neck, on either side of the tail, and other places,” says Magnuson.

“We have a lot of earmarks here, too.  They can become pretty extreme—in order to be unique—and some are works of art.  I’ve seen everything from a totally cropped ear to things like an upside-down L carved into the ear.  I’ve also seen one mark cut so the top of the ear folds over,” he says.

Today many ranchers, especially seedstock producers, use in-herd identification with individual animal numbers (or a combination of numbers and letters), generally utilizing ear tags or brisket tags.  The latter are preferred by some ranchers, since they usually stay in place for the life of the animal and are not as readily torn out as ear tags—which often get caught on hay racks and feeders, fences, or brush.

Some people use a system of number/letter codes to tell the sire of the animal as well as it’s own ID, and the year it was born.  Craig Bieber, Bieber Red Angus Ranch, Leola, SD says there are many ways to mark eartags.  “One of the more ingenious I’ve seen was to put the dam’s number on the back side of the tag on the outside corner so you can see who the dam of the calf is when he’s walking away from you.  We also do this with lot numbers for sale cattle so buyers can see the number as cattle are walking away,” says Bieber.

He freeze-brands on the right hip for owner ID and trademark, and tags every calf at birth with a yellow ear tag and its own ID number.  “That tag has the dam’s number above the calf’s number and a sire code in the neck of the tag, along with the dam’s number on the back of the tag. If we re-tag an animal after weaning, we only put the sire code on the tag in addition to the ID number,” says Bieber.

A handy system used by some ranchers is brisket tags on the cows (a permanent in-herd ID number) and ear tags on the calves (to match the mother’s number) so you always know the dam of the calf.  If heifer calves are kept as replacement heifers, they are given permanent brisket tags with their own ID number at weaning or sometime before they go into breeding groups as yearlings.  Even though ear tags are often lost, they generally last through calfhood, and if they stay in longer, the mama’s number is in the ear for reference. 

Brisket tags are much more dependable than ear tags because they rarely pull out.  Clymer says one year nearly ¼ of his cows lost ear tags because their ears froze.  “My average cow lost about 1/3 of her ear due to cold weather.  It was 12 below zero with a chill factor much colder because of the wind,” he says.

“I’ve seen some people try tail tags, but they rarely stay in.  Some people use an ear notching system, like is done with pigs.  There are all kinds of earmarks, like a swallow fork, a split, and some just cut the bottom third of the ear off.  A lot of ranchers incorporate 2 marks, such as a notch on the upper left side of one ear and a different mark on the right ear—to differentiate their cattle from their neighbors’,” explains Clymer.

“One of the more unusual ID system’s I’ve seen was the Basin Angus system,” says Bieber.  “It was very ingenious (and by the tag number you could tell who the dam was) but no one outside the program could understand it.  They abandoned it about a year or two before they dispersed their herd,” he says.

“Earmarks in range country for ranch ID work well as long as there is cooperation and understanding among neighbors, since there is only so much ear to work with,” says Bieber.

Earmarks are sometimes used for within-herd management purposes in commercial herds, to help with record keeping.  “One of the more ingenious systems is the use of ear notching or eartag notching to identify breeding groups, cull groups, or antibiotic-treated cattle.  I’ve also seen producers who bobbed the tails of a cow to show that she was a late calver or open,” says Bieber. 

Similarly, at preg check time some producers use a paintbrush to apply bleach to the hair of a dark-colored (black or red) cow, to show whether she will calve early, mid-season, late, or is open.  The spot of bleach turns the hair lighter-colored and it can be seen from a distance.  Putting the mark at the withers or shoulders means she’ll calve early, putting it on the ribs means she’ll calve later, and a spot on her hip or near the tailhead means she’s open.  The bleached area is visible until that hair coat sheds out. This makes it easy to sort the cows later (without needing a record book) into various calving groups, or into the cull group.