NCSU Maverick
Well-known member
For those of you with experience, what color does the skin grow back on a black hided cow after being freeze branded?
The skin of the animal contains millions of hairs which make up the animals coat. Figure 1 is an enlarges, simplified drawing of one hair shaft with its color (pigment) producing follicle (CF) and its growth follicle (GF), both shown below the skin.
Under normal circumstances hair grows as a clear shaft (like a clear straw) from the GF. On colored animals, pigment (black, brown, red, yellow etc.) is added from the CF below the skin to the clear hairshaft, which gives the hair its color.
When the intensely cold iron used in freeze branding is placed on the skin for the correct time and at the correct pressure, the cold temperatures destroys the CF's at the brand site so they no longer can produce pigment; however, the hair still continues to grow for the GF's. The result is that hair at the brand site contains no pigment and appears white. This is the desired result-a uniform, white brand. If the iron is pressed to the skin for a shorter period of time and/or with less pressure that required, some hairs grow in colored and some hairs grow in white, so the brand has a streaked appearance. If the iron is held on a longer period of time, the cold destroys the GF's as well, so that no hair grows at all. On light colored animals the bald is desirable because the dark skin with no hair shows up better that a white brand.
Read the article I posted above.NCSU Maverick":1x0xt8s8 said:Just got done breeding one of the cows we branded. Her brand doesn't seem to be growing any hair and I have a feeling we might have held the irons on too long.
We used nitrogen and held the brands thirty seconds. Was that too long for black cows? What do you all do?
BLACKNCSU Maverick":8ndrqx0p said:For those of you with experience, what color does the skin grow back on a black hided cow after being freeze branded?
Loch Valley Fold":2b340cpl said:What is the youngest age a calf can be freeze branded?