Freeze Branding.....

Every year after Thanksgiving, we get together at my Grandpa's corrals to freeze brand all of his registered black angus heifers.  Last year I asked how many of my friends on facebook knew waht that was....there were a couple.  So, I decided to post info from Wikipedia,w hich is accurate, and save myself the time of typing, in order to document our day of freeze branding.  We use isopropyl alcohol with dry ice in styrofoam coolers.  Looks really neat, but don't get too close without your insulated gloves!!

In contrast to traditional hot-iron branding, freeze branding uses a branding iron that has been chilled with a coolant such as dry ice or liquid nitrogen. Rather than burning a scar into the animal, a freeze brand damages the pigment-producing hair cells, causing the animal's hair to grow white where the brand has been applied. To apply a freeze brand, the hair coat of the animal is shaved so that the bare skin is exposed, then the frozen iron is applied to the bare area for a period of time that varies with both the species of animal and the color of its hair coat: Shorter times are used on dark-colored animals, simply causing the hair follicles to lose all color and regrow as white hairs. Longer times are needed on animals with white hair coats, as the brand is applied long enough to permanently stop the hair from growing in the branded area and only skin remains.

Freeze brand detail on shoulder of horse.Freeze brands cause less damage to the animals' hides than hot iron brands, and can be more visible. Horses are frequently freeze-branded. At this time, hogs cannot be successfully freeze branded, as their hair pigment cells are better protected. Also, freeze branding is slower, more expensive, less predictable (more care is required in application to assure desired results), and in some places does not constitute a legal brand on cattle. When an animal grows a long hair coat, the freeze brand is still visible, but its details are not always clear. Thus, is it sometimes necessary to shave or closely trim the hair so that a sharper image of a freeze brand can be viewed.

An animal that is going to have a freeze brand applied will need to have the hair shaved off of the branding site. Hair is an excellent insulator and needs to be removed so that the extreme cold of the freeze branding iron can be applied directly to the skin. Then the freeze branding iron, made of metal such as brass or copper that removes heat rapidly from the skin, is submerged into the coolant. Immediately before the freeze branding iron is ready to be applied, the animal's skin is rubbed, squirted, or sprayed with a generous amount of 99% alcohol, then the freeze branding iron is removed from the coolant and held onto the skin with firm pressure for several seconds. The exact amount of time will vary according to the kind of animal, the thickness of its skin, the type of metal the branding iron is made of, the type of coolant being used, and other factors.

Immediately after the freeze branding iron is removed from the skin, an indented outline of the brand will be visible. Within seconds, however, the outline will disappear and within several minutes after that, the brand outline will reappear as swollen, puffy skin. Once the swelling subsides, for a short time, the brand will be difficult or impossible to see, but in a few days, the branded skin will begin to flake, and within three to four weeks, the brand will begin to take on its permanent appearance.

Of course, it can't be all work and no play, we have to have time for the occaisonal Pepsi or Diet Coke and snacks, along with a few tall tales!

My 4-year old, Stetson, was bound and determined to get those cows into the chute, he had his cattle prod and was taking his job very seriously to help his cousin Kade.

Two years ago, he was a bit nervous around the cows and everyone started to give him a bit of a hard tim, so by last year he had convinced himself (as he would tell me quite often) that he wasn't scared of the cows, huh mom?  And this year he went right to work proving that we wasn't.  Of course, in that spot, you might be a little more afraid of what comes out of the cow, than the cow herself! ;)

GOT HER!