The M5 Brand
When we decided we would sell our meat under the Five Marys name, we wanted our brand to incorporate the number 5 and the letter M. While that works well enough on paper, and for our family, branding cattle hides is a little different: brands wind up more distinct (and easier to see from a distance) if none of the lines change direction with less than a 45-degree angle. We came up with our M5 brand, made with a wavy M that connects to the 5, as a way of making the brand as legible as possible.
Every time we harvest cattle, a state brand inspector comes to the ranch to verify that all of our animals bear the Five Marys brand on the left rib area. Ranchers register both the look of the brand and the location where it is to be branded on their livestock. It also guarantees that we haven’t stolen the cattle and protects us in case someone steals ours; cattle rustling is something ranchers across the country still battle. Plus, it helps if the cows manage to break through our fences. They say a rancher whose cows have never gotten out is a rancher who doesn’t own cows! Their identifying ear tags can fall off, and a brand is the only certain way to identify what ranch the cattle call home. At the Burgerhouse, we have a gallery wall with wooden blocks displaying the brands used in our valley. A family brand is a sacred thing.
We usually brand our new cattle in one day every November in an all-hands-on-deck effort that leaves us pretty exhausted. It’s hard work, but because it involves a team of friends with everybody working together, it’s one of our girls’ favorite days on the ranch. At the end, we feed everyone who’s helped - usually something simple but satisfying, like a huge sheet-pan dinner I can prep and throw in the oven once the branding is done.
There are only about 42 Brand Inspectors in California to cover the whole state and they will come out the morning you are moving, selling, or harvesting cattle to check records and verify that you own those cattle. Sometimes cattle will have multiple brands, if they have changed hands, but they can also be tracked just with their original ranch brand. Brian works from his shipping container office at our USDA harvest barn on the ranch the night before we harvest our own cattle. Sometimes we get yearlings from our brother-in-law’s ranch in Oregon. The calves are born and branded there, with different brands that are all in their family as 5th and 6th generation Oregon cattle ranchers.
We don’t find it necessary to add the M5 brand to those cattle since they have already been branded with our brother-in-law’s brand - we just use their original brand for tracking (we keep the original ‘blue slip’ from the inspection when they changed hands. The Brand Inspector uses that slip to verify and prove our ownership the morning of harvest as we fill out the ‘yellow slip’ for harvest.
When we harvest cattle for other local farms and ranches, we go through the same process, and the Brand Inspector has to come out to verify for them as well. It’s quite a process, but ensures that ranchers can be protected from cattle rustlers stealing their cattle and trying to sell or harvest them elsewhere. This is just a daily part of our to-do list on the ranch most nights once we’ve got the cattle sorted for harvest the next day.
