Brands

Spring is here…sort of.  What does that mean?  Spring cleaning?  Well, yes, but it also means that spring branding is near.  My friend tells me that spring branding occurs once the new calves have arrived and are old enough for branding.  It is also close to the time when the cattle will be moved to their summer range, so in gathering them up for branding, they are also being gathered to move.  This happens about twice a year when the cattle will be moved to their summer and winter ranges.  A brand is a way of proving ownership and is, therefore very important to ranchers.  The Linams, for example, had many different brands for their animals as you can see on their branding board from the Virgil and Thelma Linam Collection in the South Gallery.

Brands have a long history in ranching spanning back to ancient Egypt.  According to www.cowboyshowcase.com, ancient Greeks and Romans marked their livestock as well.  Closer to home, it was Hernando Cortez who introduced branding to the New World from Spain.  These early Spanish brands were usually very ornate and complicated.  American ranchers, later, wanted something easier to remember, easy to make, hard to alter, and something that wouldn’t blotch.  Today, brands must be registered with the state livestock agency.  The brand design is recorded as well as the location of the brand on the animal.  Branding is the best way to legally identify an animal.  One of my favorite quotes from www.cowboyshowcase.com is “Trust your neighbors, but brand your stock.”  Brands really are their own language and to someone unfamiliar with it, they might seem like hieroglyphics, but to a rancher who can read or “call” the brand, brands speak volumes.  This same website gives us three accepted rules that may help in callin’ a brand: 1. Read from left to right 2. Read from top to bottom 3. And in the case of an enclosed brand read from the outside in.  Now, callin’ brands may not always follow these rules exactly but they are good guidelines.

As you can see, brands have been and remain an important part of ranching.  For more information about branding in New Mexico visit the New Mexico Livestock Board’s website:  http://www.nmlbonline.com/.  For more information about brands from Lea County please visit the Western Heritage Museum Complex and Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame.  For a first-hand experience with ranching history, please join us for the Cattle Drive of the Century where you can either join in with the drive or pass on the drive itself but join in on the chuckwagon meal and entertainment by the campfire.  Visit www.museumshobbsnm.com for more details or call 575-392-6730.