ShareThisFor more than 100 years, ranchers have used hot-iron branding for livestock identification. But when it comes to tracing animal disease, a brand isn't sufficient.
In recent years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has sought to develop a program that, in the event of a disease outbreak, would help regulators pinpoint animals' location within 48 hours.
In early August, the department proposed regulations to improve tracing U.S. livestock moving across state lines. The proposal would require all livestock of breeding age -- at least 18 months -- to have an ear tag if they're moving out of state.
In addition, all dairy cattle, rodeo cattle and show cattle, regardless of age, will be required to wear a tag if traveling across state lines.
The USDA will provide tags to states, which will distribute them to producers, White said. Tags will be uniform in appearance and bear a unique number that will be recorded by a veterinarian.
The proposed rule is not directly implemented to ensure food safety, according to Eldon White, Texas Southwest Cattle Raisers' executive vice president, because precautions are already in place that are supposed to keep tainted meat from entering the food supply.
"More importantly, it's designed to trace back to the source of that animal, so if it's a contagious disease, and they've had some pen mates, it can be taken care of before it's widespread," he said. "Primarily it's designed to take care of the health of the herd rather than the food supply."
Regardless, ranchers seem to be unanimous in their opinion that their hot-iron brand will always be best for identifying livestock on their own ranches.
Brands have been recorded in Taylor County, Texas, since 1878.
"These are some of the first records ever kept in the county," said Melanie Ray, chief deputy at the courthouse. "They were kept then for the same reason they're kept now. You record a brand to know it's yours."
According to Ray, some of the brands being registered in this six-month period can be found in some of the earliest record books for the county, proof that a brand is a long-standing mark of local tradition.
"A lot of these brands are still in existence today, passed down from generation to generation," she said. "Even if you're not running stock anymore, it's often a family brand, a mark of your family."
Billy Green doesn't anticipate ever getting rid of the brand his granddad adopted more than 100 years ago for W.H. Green ranch in Albany, Texas.
"Well, I imagine as long as there are individuals with neighbors, probably so," he said of finding a use for the hot-iron brand. "It's the only sure way I know of to identify they're yours."
One of most recognizable brands is that of the King Ranch, an 800,000-acre Texas spread. Almost everything on the property is emblazoned with the Running W brand.
"It means so much to our ranch that it's actually copyrighted," said Dave Delaney, ranch vice president. "It's a brand in the truest sense of the word. It's inherent to our very well being."
The Running W appears not just on the cattle, he said, but on the trucks that drive through the ranch, barns and buildings. It's stamped on every piece or correspondence that leaves the ranch office.
Delaney doesn't disagree with the traceability framework the USDA wants to implement, but, like most ranchers, he also doesn't foresee ever ceasing to use the traditional hot-iron brand.
"It's been in use since 1860," he said. "It's basically the symbol of all that we are."
(Contact Hannah Boen of The Abilene Reporter-News in Texas at http://www.reporternews.com/staff/hannah-boen/
