Livestock Branding - Freeze Branding

Freeze Branding

In contrast to traditional hot-iron branding, freeze branding uses a branding iron that has been chilled with a coolant such as dry ice or liquid nitrogen. Rather than burning a scar into the animal, a freeze brand damages the pigment-producing hair cells, causing the animal's hair to grow white where the brand has been applied. Freeze brands cause less damage to the animals' hides than hot iron brands, and can be more visible. Horses are frequently freeze-branded. At this time, hogs cannot be successfully freeze branded, as their hair pigment cells are better protected. Also, freeze branding is slower, more expensive, less predictable (more care is required in application to assure desired results), and in some places does not constitute a legal brand on cattle. When an animal grows a long hair coat, the freeze brand is still visible, but its details are not always clear. Thus, it is sometimes necessary to shave or closely trim the hair so that a sharper image of a freeze brand can be viewed.

To apply a freeze brand, all hair is shaved at the branding site. This is because hair is an excellent insulator, and must be removed so the extreme cold of the freeze branding iron can be applied directly to the skin. The iron, made of metal such as brass or copper that removes heat rapidly from the skin, is submerged into the coolant. Immediately before the iron is applied, the animal's skin is rubbed, squirted, or sprayed with a generous amount of 99% alcohol, then the freeze branding iron is removed from the coolant and held onto the skin with firm pressure for several seconds. The exact amount of time will vary according to the species of the animal, the thickness of its skin, the type of metal the branding iron is made of, the type of coolant being used, and the color of its hair coat. Because a freeze-branded hair follicle regrows as white hair, a light-haired animal will have a freeze brand kept on the skin longer than does a dark-haired animal, so as to eliminate the hair follicle altogether and allow bare skin to show the brand.

Immediately after the freeze branding iron is removed from the skin, an indented outline of the brand will be visible. Within seconds, however, the outline will disappear and within several minutes after that, the brand outline will reappear as swollen, puffy skin. Once the swelling subsides, for a short time, the brand will be difficult or impossible to see, but in a few days, the branded skin will begin to flake, and within three to four weeks, the brand will begin to take on its permanent appearance.