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Re: [RC] Horse Branding - Sisu West Ranch".... Visible ID's have their place but they won't cut it for what the USDA is trying to do ..." As I understand they want to be able to trace individual animals to their origin. Now, a brand (hot or freeze) will not do that as every animal originally owned by the owner of the brand carries the same brand. A microchip will do that, because reading the chip produces a unique serial number for the animal. A freeze mark will do that because each freeze mark is unique to the animal. If the animal is registered it is the registration number, and a breed symbol. If the horse is unregistered it is a symbol for the state, and a serial number. Some of the stuff I hear from MT cattlemen is that they want ear tags. This would have info that could be traced to the individual animal etc. The problem is that ear tags can come off or be easily replaced. Not good. Since chips are cool new technology, and are being used in some states now, they will probably win. I just like the visible marks for theft deterrent. By the way, if the thief is sophisticated he can locate the chip, crush it and then insert a new one. No method is perfect. It should be possible to obliterate and make a Kyro Kinetics freeze mark unreadable, but the coding system is such that it would be extremely difficult to make it look like a different mark. Some of the old cattle brands can be altered by adding some more strokes and thus making them look like a different brand I have read that one enterprising thief managed to make "XIT" into a star with something in the middle. Ed Ed & Wendy Hauser 2994 Mittower Road Victor, MT 59875 (406) 642-9640 ranch(at)sisuwest(dot)us =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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