Fewer Cows’ Hides May Bear the Mark of Home

In the half-light of a winter evening in Morgan Hill, a tawny calf skittered across the pasture after its mother, a Lazy T brand visible on its right hip. To rancher Janet Burback, the brand is a matter of pride and tradition. It is also a matter of necessity. When a cow strays or falls into the hands of rustlers - still a significant threat - it is the brand she counts on to bring the animal home. Like other ranchers in California and other Western states, Burback looks with suspicion on a federal plan to institute an identification system for cattle that emphasizes numbered ear tags rather than brands as the official markers of a cow's identity. Ranchers worry that the regulation, in the final phase of revision, represents a first step toward ending branding, a method they regard as the most visible, permanent and reliable way of identifying who owns which cow. Aware that it is treading on delicate territory, the Department of Agriculture has included an exception in the rule, allowing brands to be used as unofficial identification in trade between states that agree to accept the method. Fourteen states have brand inspection laws, most of them in the West and Southwest. Yet many ranchers remain deeply skeptical. The department received close to 1,600 comments on the proposed regulation, many of them negative. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association has given qualified support to the proposal but said it would also like some parts clarified, and the inclusion of branding as an official identification method. Opposition is especially strong among ranchers in California and other Western states. Although the Agriculture Department has said it will initially provide metal ear tags at no cost — the electronic versions cost $2 to $4 apiece — many ranchers believe the program will prove more costly than federal officials have predicted. And they are leery of federal intrusion into their business practices. “It all comes down to a bureaucrat in Washington, D.C., behind a desk making the rules and deciding what’s best for you as a rancher and you as a ranching family, and that’s what people distrust,” said Kevin Kester, president of the California Cattlemen’s Association. The association, Mr. Kester said, opposes the rule in its current form and has written to the Agriculture Department asking for revisions, including greater recognition of branding and raising the age at which cattle must be tagged...more