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Freeze Branding

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Shortgrass, we helped a neighbor freeze brand his heifers one year and he wanted to use some steel irons that he had so we tried, none of them worked. The steel is not thick enough to hold the cold long enough to freeze good enough. Lucky for him, we put the numbers on with my brass irons, only the letters were the iron so at least the numbers turned out
As far as doing them when you are synching, just make sure that you have enough time to get everything done, freeze branding is best done with a "don't hurry up and get it done" attitude, take your time and do it right and they will turn out.
 
We do our heifers in late april so they are a little over a year old. You need a good firm pressure and I try to roll the iron. The irons I have are brass from L and H. Don't skimp on the alcohol,I mean for the cattle, not the guys branding. Soak them real good.
 
I use liquid N and only hold irons on for 15 to 18 seconds. Used to go longer but they seem to burn instead of turn the hair white. Also usually do them right before they calve as 2's when they get their scour guard booster. Never had a problem in 10 years doing it that close to calving. Doesn't take that long but I still don't look forward to the job.

Jorgensen's down at Ideal do at least 1500 head a year. They told us how long to hold the irons on. I have an idea that you could go even less time because when they jump at about 10 seconds and you don't get the iron exactly right back on you usually get a doubled number.
 
We'll brand the ponies in the bucking chutes or else in a horse tipping table-might have a full service day on the broncs. The yearling heifers we'll just stretch with two horses.
 
Big Swede said:
Jorgensen's down at Ideal do at least 1500 head a year. They told us how long to hold the irons on. I have an idea that you could go even less time because when they jump at about 10 seconds and you don't get the iron exactly right back on you usually get a doubled number.
Click to expand...

Once when I was up there they did 400 head of bulls in one day...but having 2 Silencer chutes sure speeds things up when one guy can prep them and the next chute just has to put the irons on.
 

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