Freeze Branding??

Last Wednesday, my friend, Vicki, told me that she was helping at the barn to freeze brand cows. Freeze brand? I thought, what is this? The cows are already living in freezing -zero temperatures. So my curiosity got the best of me and with my camera in hand, I headed to the barn. When I got there sure enough there was Vicki in the freezing coral shooing cows toward the barn. Inside the barn ,John and Brad were standing by the cattle chute. Now, in case you are city folk like me, a chute is a set of narrowly spaced cattle gates that have been setup to lead the cows down a narrow asle. When they get to the end there is a squeeze chute with a head gate in the front. This squeeze chute forces the cows to stop and once in position the cow hands can work with the cow (see the first picture).

Today I learned what Freeze Branding was and now I'm telling you! The cow, brown or black or red, is branded with a branding iron that is cold, very cold. The branding iron is immersed into liquid nitrogen until it is freezing, I can't remember the temp. While this is going on the cow in the chute gets a mini hair cut on the left shoulder and the left hip (that's Brad with the clippers in picture #2). Once the hair is removed some antiseptic is sprayed onto the exposed skin. Next the freezing cold metal is held in place about 2 minutes. This burns a brand into the skin of the cow. The third picture is of John Finegan applying the brand. See the smoke on the fourth picture, that is not from heat but cold! Burr!

Brad, the head cowboy around the ranch, told me that the freezing causes the skin to lose its pigmentation and when the hair grows back it comes out white! (He also said that it stings alittle but doesn't really hurt the cow). Brad said that this white brand makes the cows easier to recognize from a distance when the cowboys have to separate cows or bring them in for medical treatment, or any other activities where identifying specific animals is required. Guess it wouldn't work too good if it was a white cow! The placement of the brands is dictated by regulations and when the cowboys are riding the herds on horseback, they know exactly where to look to make sure this cow belongs to the ranch.

It's a pretty repetitive process. Vicki ushers the cows into the chute, Brad stops the cow in the squeeze chute, John shaves the left rump, Brad shaves the hair off the left shoulder, John and Brad apply the brands for 2 minutes, Brad opens the chute and the cow runs back to the corral. Another cow enters the squeeze chute and the process starts all over again. Now you, like me, know what freeze branding is all about.

After about 10 cows, I got bored and came back to the house. Guess I won't make a good cowgirl. Oh me...another lost career option.