NW Home of Freeze Branding
The Northwest is known for a host of great things…..We’re the home of Nike, Nordstrom’s fine wine, fabulous coffee and... Freeze branding. I’m Susan Allen and I’ll be back on today’s Open Range to fill you in on a method that revolutionized the way we identify livestock developed right here at one of our 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 WashingtonStateUniversity, most horses are now humanely freeze branded. It began 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. 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. It is interesting that freeze branding was first adopted by the Arabian Horse Registry and then other breeds jumped on the band wagon, today even our wild BLM mustangs get a freeze brand on their neck. I’m Susan Allen