Cattlemen consider eliminating brand inspections

The Nebraska Cattlemen have floated a plan to do away with the state’s nearly 60-year-old brand-inspection requirement. Branding, which dates to the 1800s, was started to counter cattle rustling. Brand inspection became state law with the creation of the Nebraska Brand Committee in 1941. But many ranchers are no longer willing to pay the 75-cent per head fee that’s charged for inspection whenever cattle are sold or cross the north-south inspection line in central Nebraska that divides farming and ranching country. “Why is it that there are only 13 states out of 50 that have cattle that find it necessary to have inspection of some sort?” Melody Benjamin of the Cattlemen’s office in Alliance asked the Lincoln Journal Star. “Why are we special? Why is this necessary here?” The Cattlemen aren’t aiming to get rid of branding, Benjamin said, just the inspections. They plan to hold a series of informational and educational meetings across the state before deciding whether to approach a state senator about sponsoring a bill to do so...more