09/08/08 Freeze branding from the Northwest

The Northwest is known for a host of great things&..Nike, fine wine, fabulous coffee and freeze branding. I'm Susan Allen, Jeff is out in the field today and I will return right after the break with a method that revolutionized the way we identify livestock developed by one of our very own Northwest land grant universities. Since the middle ages folks have been branding cattle with a hot iron to determine ownership and while that method is still popular on many ranches in the wrongs hands it can be damaging to horses that have thinner skin. Thanks to a veterinarian at Washington State University, most horses are now humanely freeze branded. It all started back in 1960 when Dr. Keith Farrell a vet at WSU and his wife Pat came up with a new way to brand livestock. They dubbed it the Alpha Angle System of Identification known today as the "freeze brand", a method of using intense cold to damage the color pigment in hair cells leaving horses with either a white or bare brand with out harming skin or muscles. When you thinking branding, ranch horses come to mind but freeze branding was first adopted by the Arabian Horse Registry and then other breeds followed. Freeze branding uses either nitrogen or alcohol at a temperature of about minus 320 degrees F and should be applied by a veterinarian or a someone with experience in freeze branding.