Taking Stock of Indian Ranching
Branding

     Brands are very important because they have traditionally specified ownership of cattle. Brands are applied with a hot iron (although now there are also electric irons) to a specific place on each animal: it can be on the shoulder, barrel (the rib-cage area), or hip and it can be on either side of the animal. Each ranch not only has its own unique brand, but also a unique place on the animal which the brand appears. Brands often contain letters and symbols, and these are read in a particular order: from left to right and from the outside in. Each symbol in a brand has a unique name, and the way a letter appears also has a particular name. There are also picture brands, in which the brand is not a symbol but a picture.

Running R over Bar Rosinda A. Hopkins 1913	Flying W Manuel Leon 1912	A picture brand Mark Valencia 1929

     In addition to brands, cattle are sometimes marked with an earmark, which is a cut made to one or both ears of the calf. Earmarks are also unique for each ranch, and are recorded in the brand book of each state. Each animal must have its ear(s) marked in the same way, and this is usually done during branding. Why do people earmark their cattle in addition to branding? One challenge with proving ownership with brands is that some brands become faded over time, especially if the brand is not applied correctly. Also, a traditional problem has been cattle theft. Some brands can be altered by attaching another symbol to them, as the one below shows.

This is a drawing of a real example of changing brands on stolen cattle.
The brand was originally the black lines only, Y-E brand.
The stolen cattle had the red lines added to their brand to make a new K-B brand.

     Earmarking helps to ensure that the symbols on the cow will not be altered so easily. Some brand designs also can help protect a rancher from cattle theft. Additionally, there are brand inspectors who monitor cattle sales and watch for theft by inspecting brands and looking for alterations. Brand inspectors have been an important part of limiting cattle theft, as it can be only too easy to do when large herds of animals roam on big ranges and brands can be creatively altered. Even today, brand inspectors continue to play an important role in ranching.