It's finally here

[cowgirl8]

Our new brander is here!!! Its a L&H brander. Our original brander was bought in 1977ish and they still had our brand on record...Its branded thousands of cows. Pooped out on us with our new group of heifers a few weeks ago. So we ordered a new one and it arrived yesterday.. Its bigger as we ordered, but the whole contraption is heavier duty built. I struggled with the old one, most times we had to shave before we branded. With this new one, i'm going to have to be careful i dont brand through the poor heifer. That first one is going to be tricky for me, i'll have to change my branding technique ...

 

[Bigfoot]

What is the width of the part of the brander that actually contacts the cow? I'm making some number brands at home, and tested the 8 on a roping calf. With his winter hair, you can barely see it. It must need to be wider.

PS
Congrats on the new brander.

 

[cowgirl8]

 

[Rafter S]

Our new brander is here!!! Its a L&H brander.Its bigger as we ordered, but the whole contraption is heavier duty built

I got one from them a year or so ago also, and it was also larger than what I had ordered. I had ordered the letter to be 3", and it's at least 3-1/2" and probably closer to 4".

 

[cowgirl8]

We wanted it bigger. The one we had would sometimes fill in the B...We figured it was because the skin in the small lobes of the B would also burn so we'd occasionally get a B that was not very defined. It would happen more on the heifers who would move around and i'd have to keep going back to finish..the B would over burn. Getting a bigger one will have more distance in the center of the B's lobes.....if that makes sense. It will also be easier to see, the other was about 3 to 4 inches shorter than this one. Our daughter got her own brand and its the size of our new one and easy to see, our old one you sometimes had to know what to look for..

 

[James T]

Thanks for posting the information! I remember seeing the L & H website. Looks like they have been around a long time. In talking to some others I understand branding is one of those "practice makes perfect" kind of things.

 

[bigbull338]

enjoy your new branding iron.

 

[lavacarancher]

I made my last branding iron several years ago. It works very well but it sure as heck isn't electric. Don't have electricity where the branding takes place so we rely on the old fashion, build a fire and put the iron in it 'till it gets red type of operation.

 

[Nesikep]

We have a brand, Diamond K, but never use it.. couldn't imagine trying with the setup we have! It's also electric, and old as the hills

 

[greybeard]

I made my last branding iron several years ago. It works very well but it sure as heck isn't electric. Don't have electricity where the branding takes place so we rely on the old fashion, build a fire and put the iron in it 'till it gets red type of operation.

I knew a guy that used to make the elec brands himself from heating elements out of electric stove top elements. He tried hot water heater elements and said they warped and burned out right away. Heated them with acetylene torch and bent them into shape, but said he couldn't close them up into tight figures because it made the filament inside break too often.

 

[cowgirl8]

I made my last branding iron several years ago. It works very well but it sure as heck isn't electric. Don't have electricity where the branding takes place so we rely on the old fashion, build a fire and put the iron in it 'till it gets red type of operation.

Our corrals is near our house, but has no electricity. We use a generator. But one time we got all set up and ready to brand and the generator wouldnt start. We knew we had enough extension cords to get us to the greenhouse, so we resorted in using them. It worked, but the brander wasnt getting the power it needed. Ended up with crap brands.
We now have a PTO generator, we know we'll always have a tractor running.

 

[cowgirl8]

Use the new brander today. We've used the same small brander and the only one i've ever used for over 35 years. I've never seen, seen used, been around ever, any other brander. So the first brand FREAKED me out. The hair burst into flames. lol We use to shave the area, but found with our old brander, we could just brand through the hair. Never once did i ever burst hair into a inferno. But once we got a system going, i got use to the flames. Messed up a couple brands, but they will be readable.

We have no electricity at our corrals so we use a generator. This is a pretty cool contraption my husband made. We got tired of the gas generators carburetors being all gunked up from not being regularly used. The tractor is much easier on the ears too. Barely noticed it running.

 

[Kingfisher]

Nice generator setup. What is your brand?

 

[James T]

Looks exactly like the Northstar pto generator offered by Northern Tool. 13000 watts (surge) with 4 20 amp, 1 30 amp and 1 50 amp receptacles. I like the mount for this one, I had mine on a tiny trailer but I would have preferred the one in the pic. Retail is about $1500 without the mount. Just sold mine for $900 and it was 8 years old.

 

[cowgirl8]

I think it is from northern tool. Husband made the mount. Makes it much easier to move around.

 

[cowgirl8]

I also want to add that if anyone is thinking about getting a generator for emergencies and has a tractor and a diesel tank that is usually full, this is the way to go. No gas storage needed, no starting troubles if its been sitting long...a tractor can run all day no problem. I think though, you need to check your PTO and make sure it works with the generator, seems out of all our tractors this old one was the only one that would work. I cant remember what the problem was, but not all PTOs are compatible.

 

[hurleyjd]

At what age is the best time to brand a calf to avoid any damage to the tender skin and tissue.

 

[TexasBred]

At what age is the best time to brand a calf to avoid any damage to the tender skin and tissue.

Don't forget..... you don't want to damage the hair either. :shock:

 

[cowgirl8]

At what age is the best time to brand a calf to avoid any damage to the tender skin and tissue.

I know people brand babies, but i dont think i could with the size brander this new one is. The old one was not as aggressive as the new one and much smaller. In fact, it may have been made for calves. In the past we've thought about branding when we castrated at around 3 to 5 months of age, but never did it. We did brand a couple years ago at weaning because we kept every calf due to low low prices and the drought has stunted them. We branded just in case one slipped through the fence and went traveling.
We went out last evening to feed the heifers and their brands look pretty darn good. There are a couple that are a little smudged, but still look good. And you can see them a mile away, so getting a bigger one did what we wanted it to do.

 

[hurleyjd]

At what age is the best time to brand a calf to avoid any damage to the tender skin and tissue.

Don't forget..... you don't want to damage the hair either. :shock:

Thanks TB for reminding me, you always come through. I did talk to the vet and he said that about 200 lbs is the smallest he would brand. Why because of the tissue damage that could occur. About 3 seconds would be the time to keep the iron on the skin.