Keeping the tradition alive

Certain things in some industries just don’t change with time and technology. Take ranching, for example. It takes bigger and more efficient equipment these days, and it takes a bigger herd to support a family than it did a hundred years ago. Not to mention the image of a rancher with a cell phone — an unimaginable thing until recently. But one of the things that hasn’t changed is branding. The idea of using a hot iron to put a brand on cattle evokes mixed feelings in those not familiar with the process of ranching, JT Nunn, owner of the Red Mountain Ranch, said. Branding livestock to mark ownership has existed since prehistoric times and it remains a necessity — it’s visible, it’s hard to alter and it’s required by law. Branding remains one aspect of ranching that hasn’t been affected by the ever-changing technology. “If there was a better technology that was a permanent form of identification, we would use it, but you can put chips in them, you can put tags in them, but all those things can be removed,” Nunn said. Electronic means of identification aren’t feasible ways to identify hundreds of cattle in the middle of the pasture, he added...more