freeze branding
- Thread starter RH
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CAB
Well-known member
Doug Birt @ Precott, Ia. would have some good ideas about rates.
Show Heifer
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- Jan 28, 2007
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Last time I knew an older fella was doing it based in SE Iowa... if I recall he charged 8-10 per animal depending on number of head.
Aussie
Well-known member
$65AUD per hour + amount of Dry Ice and metho used. Does not charge per head because bad yards take more time.
Freddy
Well-known member
Do you need to use dry ice or is nitrogen exceptable ..its a lot cheaper ...
Aussie
Well-known member
Have not heard of it being used here. Can you give me some infoFreddy said:
lightnin4
Well-known member
I've used both when freeze branding for others. I think the decision was made by which product is easier for that individual to handle. We used liquid nitrogen at the dairy farm when I was in college. But, probably since they didn't have a tank to hold nitrogen, we used dry ice when I freeze branded steers for our 4-H show a couple of years ago. All the freeze branding I did throught the vet clinic where I worked (mosty horses) was done with dry ice. When the irons are allowed time to cool properly both seemed to work equally well. I haven't done any freeze branding on our farm, but plan to this fall. I will probably use liquid nitrogen.
I did an internet search for freeze branding a couple of years ago and found several places that did custom branding and listed their fees.
I did an internet search for freeze branding a couple of years ago and found several places that did custom branding and listed their fees.
We freeze branded for the first time in late July. I intended to use nitrogen, but found out at the last minute you can't have it put in anything but a certified cryogenic cooler. So I had to switch to dry ice.
ZNT helped us. Neither of us had done it before. I had never seen it done. We branded 50 head. It seems to have worked great. The brands left a scar (probably not the correct term) that was readable a couple of days afterwards, the skin peeled, and now white hair is already coming back in. They are very clear.
Dry ice is plenty cold enough, the whole key is the solvent. Apparently most people use alcohol - it needs to be almost pure. However, alcohol will absorb moisture out of the air and quit working. Others use gasoline, but I was worried about odor and the explosiveness. I found one reference that suggested acetone. So, I went to the paint store and bought 5 gallons of it. It worked great. No odor, and not nearly as dangerous as gasoline. It was very wet the day we did it and we didn't have any problems.
Wasn't hard at all.
ZNT helped us. Neither of us had done it before. I had never seen it done. We branded 50 head. It seems to have worked great. The brands left a scar (probably not the correct term) that was readable a couple of days afterwards, the skin peeled, and now white hair is already coming back in. They are very clear.
Dry ice is plenty cold enough, the whole key is the solvent. Apparently most people use alcohol - it needs to be almost pure. However, alcohol will absorb moisture out of the air and quit working. Others use gasoline, but I was worried about odor and the explosiveness. I found one reference that suggested acetone. So, I went to the paint store and bought 5 gallons of it. It worked great. No odor, and not nearly as dangerous as gasoline. It was very wet the day we did it and we didn't have any problems.
Wasn't hard at all.
LN
Well-known member
chambero said:
I use methyl for the alcohol. Works pretty well and stores well too. I think it's pretty hard to obtain though, we get ours from a racing fuel company.
There are several types of alcohol - methyl alcohol is just one type. There probably isn't much difference between the types. They'll all absorb water which scared us off on the day were doing it (we knew it would probably be raining).
Petroleum-based solvents won't absorb water.
Petroleum-based solvents won't absorb water.
