Cattle branding has a rich, detailed and surprisingly complex taxonomy. Once you develop a basic knowledge of how to differentiate between the different types of marks, you’ll be able to learn a lot about the ownership of cattle with just a quick glance at a brand. There are some essential concepts and rules that most branding patterns follow.
- Brands are spoken as they are read.
For example, a circle followed by the letter D would be called the circle-D brand. - Brands are read first from left-to-right, then from top to bottom, and then from the outside-in.
- The positioning and appearance of brand elements have a special language of all their own.
For example, a letter that appears upside down is referred to as crazy. A letter that has wings is referred to as flying, and a letter with feet is walking. - To completely differentiate brands, symbols are often used in combination with letters.
For example, you’ll encounter a lot of boxes, diamonds, circles, hearts, moons and suns in cattle brands. - Characters and symbols are often combined to create unique patterns.
