Dry Ice Used to Freeze Brand Cattle

Branding Iron Photos from L-H Branding Irons

From out of the west come the thundering hoofbeats... of a new way to mark livestock ownership.  Hot branding irons are being replaced with copper irons chilled with dry ice.  Freeze branding, instead of scarring the hide, just causes the hair follicles on the animal's skin to make white hair, making the brand easily visible. 

A freeze-branding iron is made from copper with the face (characters) slightly rounded.  The animal to be branded is herded into a "squeeze chute", the hair in the area to be branded clipped very close to the skin, the area sprayed with alcohol, and then the branding iron pressed onto the surface for about a minute.  The freezing alters the hair follicles so the hair grows out white.  The animal only feels the cold for the first few seconds because the skin is quickly numbed by the cold.  The branding iron is chilled by immersing,  between brandings, in a mixture of dry ice and 90-percent alcohol for a few moments until the mixture quits bubbling, indicating that the iron has been chilled.  The usual dry ice safety precautions must be observed.

Call Continental Carbonic toll-free at 800-DRY-ICE2. Visit our News Archive to find out about more ways to use dry ice.