USDA brand decision burns ranchers

The hot-iron brand, the West’s most recognized ownership stamp for 150 years, isn’t grading well with federal officials searching for uniform ways of identifying livestock. The U.S. Department of Livestock is expected to propose new “farm to fork” identification rules for tracing animals making their way from the ranch to the grocery refrigerator case. The identification requirements are expected to help regulators trace diseases and other problems back to the source. But the potential exclusion of brands as a means of identifying animals sold across state lines has angered ranchers, who say the issue basically makes brands irrelevant. The USDA in March announced that ear tags will be the official cattle ID. Brands would only be used when states make special arrangements. “Fourteen states use brands as a primary means of identification, and the other states are not equipped to use and record brands,” explained Gilles Stockton, a Montana rancher and USDA adviser who discouraged the government from not recognizing brands in their new program. “There is, therefore, pressure to not accept brands as a means of official identification.” Ear tags were the ID of states with large indoor livestock operations, such as pig farms or dairies where animals live in stalls and are easy to keep track of. But, in states with wide open ranges, where one rancher’s livestock will often roam and commingle with animals from another ranch, ear tags are considered inferior. Tags fall out. They’re also hard to read from a distance; whereas, brands are there for life and can be spotted fairly easily through a pair of binoculars...more