CALF News Aug./Sept 2018

42 CALF News • August | September 2018 • www.calfnews.net By Blaine Davis Contributing Editor Beyond the Ranch Gate D riving out the proverbial ranch gate, the lyrics of one of my favorite singer/songwriters, Robert Earl Keen’s “Shades of Gray,” struck a chord with me. “We stole two Charolais heifers from Randy’s sweetheart’s paw. Sold them at the livestock sale outside of Wichita. We got $900 and never did suspect the world of hurt we be in once we cashed the check.” These three characters from the song could be labeled just “common cattle rustlers,” a phenomenon that has existed since the time of the Bible’s Old Testament. Jacob, a herdsman, branded his stock to prevent theft. Cattle rustling is still preva- lent today as evidenced by more than 1,000 agricultural-related crimes per year in Texas, alone. Many of these crimes involve just what Keen wrote about, but typically on a much larger scale. Since the times of the great cattle drives from Texas to the Kansas railheads, livestock thievery stimulated the forma- tion of Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) to combat such activity. Formed in 1877, the organization represents more than 15,000 beef cattle produc- ers with management of over four million head of livestock. TSCRA commissions about 29 peace officers under the auspices of both the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Okla- homa State Bureau of Investigations to pursue these crimes and recover more than $5 million in stolen cattle and assets each year in the two states. As evidenced from Egyptian tomb hiero- glyphics dating back to 2700 B.C. depict- ing roundups, cattle branding was used to identify ownership. Today, this practice, whether by traditional hot iron or the newer technology featuring cryogenic (freezing) methods, is still the most definitive mark of ownership and the top preventive measure to combat cattle theft. Brands are registered like trademarks or copyrights and are taxed and regulated. In Texas brands are recorded by the clerk of each county that the animals are in with the brand, then registered with the TSCRA for their use in enforcement and investigations. In my native Kansas, brands are filed with Kansas Department of Agriculture, Division of Animal Health and are valid for four years and subject to renewal. Treated as personal property, any transfer of ownership and its use should have the accompaniment of a notarized bill of sale. The Montana Cattlemen’s Association recently completed the arduous task of compiling approximately 54,000 state-registered brands into a searchable database. You may search by species, county, brand position, characters of the brand or the brand name to better identify the rightful ownership of livestock. The makeup of each registered brand is composed of capital letters of the alphabet, numerals, pictures and characters such as a circle O, cross +, bar –, etc., with many combinations and adap- tations. The characters can be positioned differently – upside down, lying down or “lazy,” connected, reversed or combined – forming complicated variations that maybe read differently from one locality or state to another. Accompanying the registration of each brand’s unique “art” is the location of its placement on the animal, such as left hip (hindquarter) or left shoulder (front quarter). Due to a limited number of a brand’s varied art, such as a combination of maybe only three letters or characters, its placement must match the registered location to be valid. Since Keen didn’t elaborate in his lyrics whether “Randy’s sweetheart’s paw avoided branding his Charolais, allowing the boys to make off with a couple in a minor-league cattle-rustling caper, we can only surmise he may have been like that of Samuel A. Maverick. A 19th century Texas politician and rancher, he refused to brand his cattle, so his surname became synonymous with those independent few who refuse to follow social order. Contrary to“maverick” unbranded cattle, taxed and registered brands are offered as “valid prima facie evidence of ownership” and continue to be a critical element of the cattle industry. As I wrote of previously, the 6666 Ranch of Texas was not won at a poker table by Captain Samuel “Burk” Burnett hold- ing a hand of sixes. The ranch, one of Texas’s most premier and largest at 275,000 acres, was named for the 6666 brand on 100 steers purchased by Captain Burnett from Frank Crowley in Denton, Texas. Thinking the brand would be difficult for rus- tlers to alter by burning over or through, which in my state and others is a felony punishable with imprisonment, he purchased the rights to it as well. Livestock Branding Security from Biblical Times to Today