Podcast: The 101 on branding your livestock

Even for smallholders, marking or branding animals is required by law. In this episode of Farmer’s Inside Track, Louis Steyl, chief operating officer at Bonsmara SA, shares his expertise on the process of livestock branding as well as the requirements.

If you become a livestock farmer, one of the first things you need to do is to obtain a brandmark that is registered in your name with your ID number, Steyl advises.

“There’s a couple of ways that you can do cattle branding. The most popular one is branding the cattle with your registered brandmark that you have with the registrar of livestock animal identification,” he explains.

Tattooing explained

Alternatively, there is another way, however, this route is used more with smaller stock, but with larger livestock in the stud industry. That is the tattooing of animals.

“If you are a registered stud breeder you can tattoo the herd designation mark, which is normally a three-letter word or symbol that you can tattoo in the ear,” he says.

How hot iron branding works

Steyl explains the hot iron branding process as follows: For ease, use a different iron for each character of the mark. Get assistance from someone. The assistant must approach the animal and firmly grasp it. It will be simpler to brand if you have a crush pen. Make sure the iron is hot enough until it turns yellowish. To check if the iron is hot enough, test it on a piece of wood.

Keep the animals from kicking you by knee-harnessing them. Take the first iron and slowly count to three while pressing it against the animal’s skin. Don’t push. Take the iron out. Do the same with the second iron. The third should be treated similarly, and so on until your registration number is complete.