Cattle Vaccinations and Branding

Any good livestock producer puts a great deal of time and effort (and money) into maintaining the health of their animals.  It doesn't matter if it's cattle, hogs, sheep, goats, chickens, llamas... you name it and there's a protocol to maintain their quality of health and happiness.

There are a number of routines that we do throughout the year, depending on what time of year it is.  This post is specifically about the way we prepare our cattle for their optimal health throughout spring and summer and how we freeze brand to identify ownership.

First, optimal health:

Some people assume that a livestock producer's main goal is just to accumulate as many head as they can, throw everything in a pen and push the heck out of them to maximize profit.  Unfortunately, there are a few - and I mean JUST a FEW - of those people out there; in any group, there's always potential for a bad apple.   However, the overwhelmingly majority of livestock producers take great pride and care in tending their livestock.  

One of the ways we tend our livestock is to keep them up on their annual vaccinations.  

SAY WHAT?!?!  

You heard me right! Vaccinations.  Every year, we gather every single head of livestock we own - from the mature to babes -  and give them the vaccinations they need to keep them safe from a number of illnesses or conditions that would otherwise potentially afflict them in summer pastures.  Some vaccinations are just needed once in their life, some come with boosters and some are annual.  It's no different than human vaccinations: we give our children vaccinations in their young years to protect them from potentially deadly diseases; and similarly, some are once, some come with boosters and some (like people's flu shot) are annual.  Just like people have people diseases that the vaccinations help prevent, cattle have cattle diseases that the vaccinations help prevent.  So, every year before the cattle are turned out to wide open pasture for the spring, summer and fall, they EACH get their OWN diagnoses of what vaccinations are needed and they get them.  We keep records so we know who needs what.  The vaccinations cover things as simple as pink eye to more complicated issues like respiratory viruses and a whole gamut of things in between.

This is one of the bulls in the chute.  Josh and Sarah were the in charge of the branding (noted later in the post) and Loren and Caleb were vaccinating.  Loren did the shots and the device in Caleb's hand applied the dewormer (also mentioned a little later in the post).

Our operation is something called a cow-calf operation.  That means we raise the mamas (cows) and their babies (calves).  At every point in time throughout the year, we have pregnant mamas.  And just like pregnant women, they need special health care.  So the cows get a shot that helps protect their pregnancy from a disease that would hurt both cow and calf.  It's kinda like prenatal vitamins, except you can't really give a cow a daily pill so you give her an annual shot instead.

This is a little bit of an older picture, but shows a few cow-calf pairs.

The cattle also get a dose of dewormer, just like your pets at home do.  And a little bit later in the season, we'll also give them a dose of pest (flies, tick, mite, flea, etc.) control, just like your pets at home get through shot, collar or liquid application.

Later in the summer, the cattle get an application of a pest control in the form of a shower.  It actually feels pretty good to them because the water is nice and cool on what is usually a very hot day.  It's like playing in the sprinklers for them... by the time their turn in the pen is over, they're usually nudging each other out of the way to get a better shot of the water!

Something to keep in mind is that each year is different and could pose a health threat that might not have been present the year before or that was present the year before but isn't the current year.  Livestock producers have to keep a constant eye on their herd to watch for signs and symptoms and keep up to date on research for what is the best method used to keep their herd healthy.

One last thing to note about vaccinations: we don't use any kind of hormonal supplements.  The vaccinations do their job to build up the animal's immunity but do not stay in their system, so what we offer is natural beef without any kind of hormonal additives.

On to branding.

When you say branding, most people think of hot branding, where the ranch's logo is burned into the cattle hide and the resulting scar from the burn is the brand.  That method is still used in some places, but there is a much more humane method that is quickly replacing the hot brand.   That method is freeze branding.  The method of freeze branding uses either liquid nitrogen or a dry ice and alcohol mixture to cool a branding iron so cold that it causes the hair follicle's pigmentation to stop forming.  The hair stays on the animal (there is no scar) but turns white since the hair stops producing color.  The length of time the cold branding iron stays on the hide varies depending on its age; calves run about 30 seconds and aged cows are about 70 seconds with a variation of times for ages in between.  The cattle don't feel any pain, but it's kinda funny because they give a little jump about 10 seconds in like they're saying "Hey, that's kinda cold!"

Once the hair turns white, it stays white forever so we only have to brand each animal once.  Also, brands will grow with the animal so when we brand calves, we brand with a smaller iron so that the brand will be a normal size once the calf grows into an adult.

Why brand?  Well, for three main of reasons.  First, unfortunately cattle rustling still exists.  However, if your brand is registered (which ours is), wherever the cattle is sold must check that the name and address the brand is registered to is the same name and address the check is going to when the animal is sold.  So someone can't sell branded cattle that they've stolen since the name on the check and the name for the brand won't match.  Second, fences don't always work!  If neighbors' cattle get mixed up, it's easy to tell apart whose is whose when at least one of their cattle are branded.  And third, for us anyway, is that our (ours and Josh's folks) cattle run together.  So depending on how the brand is placed, we know if the cattle is theirs or ours.

Our registered brand is VZ.  The steam you see coming off is from the cold iron meeting the warm skin, just like when your warm breath meets the cold air on a winter morning.

The skin on which the iron is applied is imprinted with the iron for just a few minutes.  The imprint leaves (like bed sheet marks in the morning when you wake up) and the area will be white in just a few weeks.

The method of branding we use is the alcohol and dry ice method because dry ice is much more easier to acquire than liquid nitrogen.  We do have to use pure 99% alcohol, so we have to get it from the vet.  The dry ice comes from HyVee.  It's always fun to play with the leftover mixture when we're done branding with it.  Sarah had fun freezing plants that then shattered when she dropped them on the ground.

Caleb discovered feathers don't easily freeze!

Here's an example of how the hair becomes white.  This is Olive Oyl and Caleb at the fair a couple years ago.

You can tell by how little Caleb is in this picture that this was taken a few years ago too, but here's Milsap's brand all white and pretty.  We used the "little iron" on him since it was a calf and knew the brand would grow as he grew.

And here's Milsap all grown up.  The brand grew to be "normal" size.

We have different herds depending on when they're due to give birth or when they last gave birth.  When the time comes in the spring to work cattle, we will usually do one or two herds a day, depending on how sizable the herd is.   This time, it took us the better part of three days to do all the work.  The boys do most of it, but they call in us girls for backup on the days they do the big herds so we can help with record keeping, keeping a steady line in the chute, branding and the simple vaccinations.  It can become a long, hard, often hot, day's work, but it's rather enjoyable.