-
-
- There’s a video on Kazaa named “horse death kick” or something like that. It shows a horse being held in an outdoor stall, and an old guy comes up to the side with what appears to be a hot branding iron, aiming for the horse’s right rear flank. In the space of about a quarter-second, the horse sticks its leg out through the hole in the stall wall and kicks the guy squarely in the chest, sending him flying back a few feet. The video ends there. I dunno if it killed the guy or not, but it definitely looks ike it would have broken a few ribs.
…
- There’s a video on Kazaa named “horse death kick” or something like that. It shows a horse being held in an outdoor stall, and an old guy comes up to the side with what appears to be a hot branding iron, aiming for the horse’s right rear flank. In the space of about a quarter-second, the horse sticks its leg out through the hole in the stall wall and kicks the guy squarely in the chest, sending him flying back a few feet. The video ends there. I dunno if it killed the guy or not, but it definitely looks ike it would have broken a few ribs.
-
- Does anybody still use hot branding anymore? Especially on horses. I guess this video would demonstrate a pretty good reason not to, but I see horses and cows al the time driving around where I live, and I can’t ever remember seing one with any brand on it. The cows get ear tags and the horses don’t have anything…
~
This article claims that branding is still the most certain way to identify livestock.
And this one shows that there is still a market for branding irons.
Have you heard about human branding? It’s sort of an offshoot of tattooing. The brands are very tiny, under an inch I believe and leave a raised, silvery scar. Apparently, it doesn’t hurt nearly as much as you’d think and because of the heat it’s quite a sterile process. I haven’t actually seen one and I don’t remember where I read about it. I think the designs are mostly single initials or things like peace signs and Egyptian ankh’s.
You’re right about cows, DougC. I go fishing in the rural areas around here and often see cows, but nary a brand. Plenty of eartags, though.
Yep, branding is still one of the best way to keep track of ownership of animals. I buy and sell around 2000 head of cattle each year and nearly 100% of them get branded with a hot electric powered branding iron.
A brand is better than eartags for several reasons. First, in the case of theft eartags can be quiclky removed and ownership would be hard to prove. Second a brand can be identified from a much farther distance than an eartag. Third, eartags do get pulled and/or fall out by the animal just going about its normal business.
There is such a thing as cold branding but it is mainly used by people that have small numbers of animals since its cost is much higher.
I know that branding cattle is still practiced. Seen it done. Dunno about horses, though.
Yup, there’s such a thing, but it’s not confined to small brands. Check out BME’s (Body Modification Ezine) gallery on branding.
(Warning: not for the faint of heart)
Yes it is done on horses also.
I have seen the video that the OP talked about and I had always assumed that the man was not killed, being kicked by a horse or a cow is not fun but it is rarely fatal. The man in the video almost deserved what he got for trying to brand an animal without proper restraint. Whenever I am invloved with branding cattle they are in a metal “chute” that protects them from injuring themselves and the people working on them.
Still done, one of the stories that I do almost every year in my paper is one on the spring branding season. It is almost a rite of passage for young men around here with the smells of burning flesh, the sounds of balling calfs and mewing heifers and the tastes of Rocky Mountain Oysters.
I will point out that almost all branding irons out here these days are electric rather than fire heated although almost every family in the area has a set of the old-style irons.
I have one on my right hand. It’s about 3" long. You’re right about how much it hurts, the heat actually kills the nerve endings, therefore no pain after the first second or so.
This is dead on. We go to Colorado for a week of branding every year as in-laws have a large operation in the southeast plains. I brand half the cattle with an electric brand while three guys struggle to keep up the other half using 3 old fashioned long iron brands off a propane burner. The calves are also ear tagged with different color designations but, as mentioned, these are just for fast ID and aren’t nearly as reliable if a case of ownership arose.
One of the guys that helps us is a brand inspector and I know for a fact he stays damn busy doing exactly that.
TV time, you ever work around LaJunta?
I’ve never tried mountain oysters myself, but I understand they have something of a nut-like flavor. 
SC
We like to gather up all the fuzzy little ball sacs on the ground and distribute them as tobacco pouches, coozies and ear muff covers.
Oooh - This lets me use this joke :
A man travels to Spain and goes to a Madrid restaurant for a late dinner. He orders the house special and he is brought a plate with potatoes, corn, and two large meaty objects. “What’s this?” he asks. “Cojones, senor,” the waiter replies. “What are cajones?” the man asks. “Cojones,” the waiter explains, “are the testicles of the bull who lost at the arena this afternoon.” At first the man is disgusted; but being the adventurous type, he decides to try this local delicacy. To his amazement, it is quite delicious. In fact, it is so good that he decides to come back again the next night and order it again. This time, the waiter brings out the plate, but the meaty objects are much smaller. “What’s this?” he asks the waiter. “Cojones, senor,” the waiter replies. “No, no,” the man objects, “I had cojones yesterday and they were much bigger than these.” “Senor,” the waiter explains, “the bull does not always lose.”
I can clearly see your nuts. Zip your pants up. For those that did want to know RMOs have an mild organ meat flavor. For some reason I could eat them as a kid but not now.
Been a few decades since I worked brandings in Montana so can’t comment on that but my folks had a cow freeze branded as it was more humane and affordable for the one.
Kinda funny, but we used to brand without a branding chute and the process was a lot harder on the people branding the calves than it was on the calves, now with the squeeze chute, the calves definitely get banged up a lot more and we stay relatively injury free.
BTW: We still haven’t moved to electric irons, still do it using the fire-heated method.
Never seen it used in dairy cattle. Since you usually keep them fairly close to barns for milking there probably just isn’t as great a need for owner identification, more important is individual identification.
What I really wanted to stick my head in here to say was that I’ve had turkey nuts batter fried and they really taste quite good, very juicy.
At Texas A&M University there is an agricultural facility where there is a large wall marked with the brands of various ranches from which students have come. Whenever a student from a ranch not already represented begins attending the university, he or she is invited to burn his or her family brand into the wall.
There is an African-American fraternity which, at last word, still marked members with a brand as part of their initiation. William Poundstone discusses this in one of his Big Secrets books. I used to work out at a facility where another member was an army officer who was a member of this fraternity. On his upper arm there was a large omega symbol. Its appearance is a bit hard to describe; it looked a bit as though skin which nearly matched his in texture and color had been grafted onto his arm.
Very interesting question and answers.
But----as an octogenarian I have twoquestions.
Does the ‘ear tag’ replace the old ‘ear notch’?
And on the open range does one still carry a “running iron”?
Squeeze chutes indeed did protect the man with iron-----but a lot of men,including myself, paid the price for foolishly dropping down on, and trying to ride, a newy branded range animal as it came out of the chute.
Y’all ain’t never seen a ‘no’ rodeo until you’ve seen THAT.
We don’t use a chute. Cow/calf pairs are put into a large corrall and then the mommas are split out by horseback rider and penned seperate. Calves are lasso’d by the rear foot and drug to where a front rope can be slipped on. That rope’s attached to a rubber innertube that’s staked to the ground. Then the horseman takes up the slack. This stretches 'em out flat so you can work on them and the innertube softens the stretch so you don’t hurt 'em.
Usually I’ll let the others cut their nuts, vaccinate and give them a growth hormone in the ear first, then I’ll move in with the brand because if they still have their winter coats on it’s going to create quite a bit of smoke.
We’ll then let calves and mommas pair up again and shortly they’ve quit their balling, which leads you to think they’re over it pretty quick.
Mostly ear tags are used as a quick identifier as mentioned above after branding has been completed. As far as I know, branding is the only legal means of identification by livestock inspectors for cattle. The tags help when separating cattle on the ranch or the stockyard, but it’s up to the buyer, seller, and livestock inspector to ensure that every cow is branded correctly at the time of sale.
I’ve only heard of ear notching for hogs, because I don’t think they take well to branding. I’ve never had any experience with ear notching of cattle though.