Dairy Cattle Producers Want To End The Practice Of Searing Brands On Cows, But Their Intentions Aren’t Entirely Noble

Members of the North Dakota Holstein Association strongly want to end the practice of searing brands into the hides of cows with hot irons. However, they don’t want the eons-old practice to end because it is painful to the bovine creatures.

Dairy cattle producers want to end the practice of branding imported animals because apparently it lowers their “show” value. In other words, the brands that the cow sports might ruin its perceptual value, and it won’t be able to ring in as much dough as the one who doesn’t have such identification marks burned into its hide.

Canadian cattle imported into North Dakota are required to be branded with the letters CAN. The letters are imprinted on the hides of the cows using red-hot irons. The practice is intensely painful for the creature, but the burn marks heal within a few days, leaving behind the scar that reads the brand or logo identifying the owner of the herd.

The identification of the cattle originating from Canada was meant to arrest the spread of diseases like Mad Cow. Interestingly, there are multiple other humane identification techniques, but unfortunately none of them are as clearly visible and identifiable as the seared ones.

The association asked the State Board of Animal Health to waive the brand requirement for registered dairy cattle imported into the state from across the Canadian border Tuesday. Producers merely want to end the branding practice for dairy cattle, and are suggesting relying on other forms of identification instead, reported Farm & Ranch Guide.

Fortunately for the cows, the other, more humane markers include radio-frequency identification tags and ear tattoos which indicate the country of origin.

Sue Kleingartner of Gackle, indicating a willingness to even open her farm for inspection, said, “We as producers are not trying to hide anything.”

However, not everyone is happy with ending the branding practice on cows. Joel Olson, the board’s commercial beef cattle representative, expressed concern that ear tattoos are more difficult to see. Others are more concerned that if the practice of searing brands into cattle is stopped, other related industries, like the beef industry, would start demanding the same.

“Setting a precedent is what concerns me,” Board Chairman Melvin Leland said, reported the Daily Journal.

Incidentally, the beef industry had put up a similar request in the past, but was turned down citing similar fears like the inability to segregate and isolate diseased cows and their originating ranches. In the past, the brand was the only thing that allowed U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors to identify a cow at a Washington slaughter plant infected with mad cow disease as Canadian.

Is branding a cow justified?

[Image Credit | Missadventure]