ELECTRICAL BRANDING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 January 1939, Page 3

ELECTRICAL BRANDING

HAWKE’S BAY DEVICE. Electricity has been employed by a Hawke’s Bay inventor to revolutionise the branding of stock on farms. The old method of fire-branding has proved cumbersome to the farmer-and painful to the animals, apart from detracting from the sale value of hides, features which are eliminated by this new humane branding device.

Built of a light-weight alloy, the machine is a pistol-grip implement operated by a trigger, the interchangeable lettering of the brand being situated in the muzzle.

An ordinary car battery supplies the required power. When in use, a touch of the trigger heats the brand instantly; it is then pressed on the portion of the animal to be’marked. The brands, numbers, or letters used are simply plugged in arm may be changed in a second or two.

Each piece of brand consists cd what appears to be asbestos sheeting, on the surface of which is electric wire shaped in the form of the desired brand.

The stock do not suffer in any way from this branding, as the wire burns only the outer skin.

Experiments show that in 43 minutes 92 cattle can bo branded in numbers from 1 to 92.

Ear-branding is provided for by another device built on different linos but operating on substantially the same principle. The machine is already on the market throughout New Zealand, where it is creating great interest. It is shortly to be marketed overseas.