Pro's and con's to freeze branding compared to a hot brand?

[True Grit Farms]

Everyone seems to freeze brand their cattle, and I see no upside. Why?

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Easier for some I would say. Work great for black and red cattle.

 

[76 Bar]

I agree about the legibility and especially at a distance. The down side compared to hot iron branding: it requires a much higher level of input e.g. skills, short and long term fiscal outlay and regarding an owners registered brand, CA for example mandates a hot iron.

 

[Dave]

A hot iron is much easier and simpler. Around here where every single cow (or calf) is branded 99.9% are branded with a hot iron. The only freeze brands I see are on registered cows. And often those are just ID numbers of the cow. The ranch registered brand is applied with a hot iron as a calf. The saying in the west is, trust your neighbors but brand your calves.

 

[Brute 23]

I worked at a place that did freeze branding and it was a PIA keeping them cold around here.

 

[Chocolate Cow2]

I freeze brand for two reasons.
#1 My brand is located on the shoulder and a hot iron seems to stretch, eventually becoming distorted. The freeze brand doesn't do that.
#2 It's a unique form of protection against theft for my cattle. Almost no commercial herds in my area are freeze branded.

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

I freeze branded a couple in September they were my first. Trimmed the hair and shaved them down to the skin. I used liquid nitrogen the skin blistered and peeled you don't see anything yet.
Maybe in spring when they shed out we'll see.

 

[Dave]

Here you could go to a branding nearly every day in April. They will brand 200. 300, even 400 calves or more in a day. There is no way for a freeze brand to keep up with that pace.