Why We Brand
“Trust your neighbor, but brand your cattle,” is a popular saying which is printed on t-shirts and home décor. I’ll admit, it’s a bit cliché. However, there’s a reason certain phrases are considered cliché — because they’re true.
Branding is a time-honored tradition of western culture but in recent years has been made out to be “barbaric” (as multiple members of my anti-ag Facebook groups say). Culture and tradition aside, there’s a reason we brand and there’s also more to a branding event than just a few irons in the fire. Because it is branding season, many anti-ag organizations and accounts are speaking out against branding practices.
A Facebook post shared to a few of my groups and originally posted by Animal Revolution compared a photo of a traditional, western branding to the branding of people. The post reads: “Does this look familiar to you? Hot or Freeze branding is still widely legal around the world. [It’s] one of many ways sick people can legally enjoy the suffering of animals that gives them a sense of supreme power above them.”
The post goes on to explain freeze branding and hot branding in a critical and assumptive way. Animal Revolution also claimed that freeze branding could lead to the slaughter of animals.
An April 2016 Drovers article covered a study which evaluated the behavior of animals while being branded, as well as the psychological effects branding has on said animal. I’m not going to quote the study word for word but if you can read the full article here.
Photo captured at the May 2, 2020 Cremer Branding near Big Timber, Montana
This article extensively covers the scientific effects of hot branding, freeze branding, and sham branding. This article suggested freeze branding over hot branding because it “elicits a milder pain response and can minimize hide damage.”
Another thing I found interesting in this article was its mention of ways to alleviate pain. In many of these Facebook groups, one of the key points anti-ags bring up is the fact that we don’t typically use a pain killer of sorts while branding.
This Drovers article claims, “The conclusions were that neither a single injection of a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug nor a cooling gel applied at branding sped up healing rate or minimized wound sensitivity during the healing process that took up to 8+ weeks to complete.”
At most brandings, the people involved are not *just* branding the calves, they’re also vaccinating and castrating. Both of which are highly speculated by those who are uninformed.
Each calf is given two vaccines to prevent respiratory disease, one vaccine to prevent clostridial diseases, is castrated (if male) and branded.
Photo captured at the May 2, 2020 Cremer Branding near Big Timber, Montana
So why do we vaccinate cattle? Well, why do you vaccinate your kids? To keep them healthy. A few months/weeks after a calf is born, they are given vaccines to prevent sickness — much like the booster shots you would give a baby or a puppy. If the animals get sick, you can doctor them with drugs such as antibiotics — much like you would a human being or a dog.
We vaccinate cattle because we genuinely care about the wellbeing of our livestock. We care about our livestock because 1.) most ranchers are not monsters and actually love animals; 2.) unhealthy cattle makes for a not-so-tasty steak; and 3.) it effects our bottom line.
Castration is done on bull calves to combat a multitude of potential issues. Per the Canadian Beef Cattle Research Council, castration of bulls can stop the production of male hormones, prevent unplanned mating, decrease aggression (which correlated to the safety of other animals), obtain price premiums and/or avoid price discounts from feedlots and meat packers, produce meat with consistent and higher quality, and decrease costs of bull management.
Basically, castrating a bull calf is no different than neutering a dog.
Something I found interesting in the Drovers article mentioned a few paragraphs back was its reference to “instantaneous pain.”
I recently attended two brandings, one to take photos and one to administer a nasal vaccine. Now, because I knew I would be writing about this, I really paid attention to how the calves reacted while they were being branded, vaccinated, and castrated. It kind of reminded me of my 4-year-old self getting a shot at the doctor’s office: a freak out at first, just because I was nervous; a bit of a struggle as the nurse touched the rubbing-alcohol soaked cotton ball to my arm; then an “Okay, we’re done,” before I knew we had even started.
Photo captured at the May 2, 2020 Cremer Branding near Big Timber, Montana
You see, from my personal observation, calves do freak out about being branded, vaccinated, and cut — but the minute it’s over, they jump right up, wander around, and beller for their mama… just like humans.
On top of all this scientific and logical thinking, there’s one more thing I want to talk about: culture.
Culture is defined by Merriam-Webster as “the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group.”
Y’all, Western Culture is very much so “a thing.” It’s kind of hard to describe, but I’m going to try my best. Western Culture is never truly “clocking out” of your job because raising cattle and growing crops is an all-encompassing, full-time job. Western Culture is hauling in a steer of your own to be processed at a local plant and saving the T-bones for Christmas dinner. Western Culture is the look in a grandpa’s eye when one of his grandchildren asks if they can help him brand a calf.
Western culture is what this nation was built on, quite literally. We work from sunup ‘til sundown with no days off. We spend our hard-earned money to raise livestock so your belly can stay full. We have specific traditions which personally, I feel should be upheld; and if we don’t practice these time-honored traditions, it’s only a matter of time before they’re completely phased out.
If we didn’t brand, we wouldn’t be able to easily identify our cattle.
If we didn’t vaccinate, we wouldn’t be able to produce healthy cattle which would then lead to unhealthy meat hitting your local grocery store.
If we didn’t castrate, we would (quite literally) overpopulate the earth with aggressive cattle.
If we didn’t participate in branding events, we wouldn’t uphold the traditions of our Western Culture and we wouldn’t be who we are: cattlemen and women, dedicated to feeding the world.
Photo captured at the May 2, 2020 Cremer Branding near Big Timber, Montana
