Our first freeze branding experience... (3 weeks later pics added)

[tcf]

We will be freeze branding for the first time this year. We just picked up our iron and are excited. This is a great thread and the freeze branding handbook was extremely well received in our house.
our brand was made from bronze and we are eager to see the results. we have seen some brands done with copper alloy and brass and feel the brass left clearer markings. I have been researching this tropic for a while wanting to get away from hot irons. It just took a bit to get  it passed at the family supper table.

 

[Mueller Show Cattle]

Crystal, we received no help when we designed the brand. Hindsight now, I wonder if the letters will "bleed" within the Maltese cross because they are too close to the outline. I guess we will see. The best time to see if that happens is in the fall when they have the most hair growth. The brand was around $150, and the registration was $25. We may have to go back to the drawing board, and are thinking if we do we will just remove the FS from the center. Just forward thinking....
[/quote]
Firesweep, if you want to keep that brand and it does bleed through or what we call burn through for a hot/fire brand, you can make that brand into 2 or more brands to keep that from happening. Yes you have to brand them 2 or more times but it comes out a very clean brand then. So you could have 1 brand with the Maltese cross then 1 with a F and S, brand them with the cross 1st then come back immediately with the F and S. Just a thought. It is very easy to burn through with hot/fire brands, so most use 2 or 3 branding irons for 1 complete brand.

 

[firesweepranch]

Today is day 12 post branding, and they are looking quiet nice, if you ask me   I almost wish they would stay this way instead of the hair growing in white, the clarity is really good! Of course, we have a few that looked messed up, especially the bull calf that jumped and got stuck and we had to squeeze him a second time. Hindsight, we should have just left him to see how the brand turned out instead of going back over the top of it. Oh well, it was the vet's call.
So here are some pics. We turned the branded group out for some grass that grows around the front of our place, it is usually mowed, not grazed, but with our lack of grass and still being on hay I thought it would be foolish to mow it and not let the cattle have a chance for a small strip of grass!

 

[cpubarn]

The brand looks good, but I REALLY like "Grace" The second picture down, seems like a very deep bodied heifer.

What is she?

Mark

 

[ruhtram]

It looks like they turned out real well!!

 

[CAB]

That closest heifer up in the top picture is no slouch either. Nice cattle FSR. Just curious, why did you decide to go with the left front shoulder as opposed to the right shoulder? I personally like them on the picture side so that everyone eventually knows where they came from.

 

[firesweepranch]

The brand looks good, but I REALLY like "Grace" The second picture down, seems like a very deep bodied heifer.

What is she?

Mark

Thanks Mark! And CAB  Grace is sired by Grandmaster (lots of talk on here about him) out of a Pacesetter 3 year old. The closest up heifer in the top pic is sired by Amigo out of a first calf heifer (she was pictured on here last year because we put an embryo in her dam we got from Tim Burke and we were consigning her to the Royal sale  - everyone liked the cow and wondered why we used her as a recip, but our best milkers get the embryos around here!). The Amigo heifer is bred to Movin Forward for an April calf (she is an April heifer).
We went with the left side for the reason you stated, but opposite CAB, we DO NOT want to detract from our females with a brand while showing. We figure people will see the left shoulder and know where they came from. Our reasoning for branding was theft prevention. Nothing else. LOTS of 4-H and FFA kids herds have been hit around here, and we did not want to be one of those statistics.
Here is a pic of Grace and her dam.

 

[firesweepranch]

Thought I would update pictures for those who are following this with hopes of freeze branding. The first shot is the brand that slipped below the clip line. No hair growth yet, but looks real good from far away!
The second photo is a yearling we did, and I think the size looks just right.
The last photo is a cow we have that is burn branded on her ribs, the Herring Ranch brand (a big S with an arrow as far as I can tell). You can hardly see the burn brand, but you can really see the freeze brand. I like the freeze brand better.

 

[ruhtram]

I do like your freeze brand compared to that burn brand...You can hardly see it

 

[tcf]

Thanks for this post again! We have also just finished out first freeze branding experience. We did cows, yearling heifers and bull/heifer calves.

for a coolant we used liquid nitrogen. it was much easier to transport and maintain as we have a small holding tank that did the trick. it also worked out to be cheaper on a cost/hd by roughly $1 a head. Mostly due to the decrease in the need of 99% alc that is expensive. since we were branding a few consecutivly we also liked that the iron would cool faster in the nitrogen than in dry ice and alcohol. we only use out single brand and no letters, in Canada i have not seen many breeders use branded numbers on their cattle.

we found a 6 inch deep small styrofoam cooler to use and simply cut a hole in the top to slide the iron into the nitrogen. worked like a charm!

after reading through this post and material provided, i also contacted a breeder i know that does great brands for more info. from there we formulated a plan of attack and went at it.

 

[tcf]

Thanks for this post again! We have also just finished out first freeze branding experience. We did cows, yearling heifers and bull/heifer calves.

for a coolant we used liquid nitrogen. it was much easier to transport and maintain as we have a small holding tank that did the trick. it also worked out to be cheaper on a cost/hd by roughly $1 a head. Mostly due to the decrease in the need of 99% alc that is expensive. since we were branding a few consecutively we also liked that the iron would cool faster in the nitrogen than in dry ice and alcohol. we only use out single brand and no letters, in Canada i have not seen many breeders use branded numbers on their cattle.

we found a 6 inch deep small Styrofoam cooler to use and simply cut a hole in the top to slide the iron into the nitrogen. worked like a charm!

after reading through this post and material provided, i also contacted a breeder i know that does great brands for more info. from there we formulated a plan of attack and went at it.

sorry it submitted and don't know why.

shaving the hair off was easy, just used a flat head clipper. we then sprayed the area down with 99% alc and cleaned it with a rice root brush. we made sure the area was good and wet before we put the brand on also. my father used a stop watch and we held 75sec for cows, 65 sec for yearlings and 55 seconds for calves. this was out hardest decision because of all the different opinions out there and i used a little over method and under some of the discussions and papers i had read. i sure as hell hope it was long enough to leave a good brand. while the brand was on the hip we noticed two things, roughly 12 seconds the cattle shit or kicked a bit, after 20 seconds nothing moved again (we have herefords and all the yearlings and calves are halter broke just to add that in for the conversation.) my father also held the spray bottle and misted the sides of the brand every 20 seconds while applied to help increase contact as the 'freeze branding bible' strongly encouraged.

when we took the brand off the skin was froze and we feel our times will work out beautifully. we are excited for the following weeks to see these things come back in white. ill post as many pictures as i can. i hope they are not to big to fit. on average it too us 5 min a head, less time on bull pen and non show cattle that will be going out this fall.

i will post more photos right after this post

any questions post away!

 

[tcf]

the cooler and two week after picture