How cattle records helped after Hurricane Ike

Even today, cattle rustling is still a threat to producers. And of course, sometimes there are just fence issues that cause cattle to go “missing”.

When you keep good cattle records, including everything that could be used to identify an animal like ear tag numbers, brand, color markings, maybe even pictures, you greatly increase the chance of recovering these cattle.

In cases of theft, this identification information, and pictures if you have them, can be distributed to auction barns, so they can be on the lookout in case the stolen cattle turn up there. If you’re a member of your local cattleman’s association, information like this is a big help during their investigation.

Just recently, my family experienced a time when good identification records would come in handy. They live on the Texas Gulf Coast, which received a direct hit from Hurricane Ike in 2008. There are still fence repairs that need to be made from the storm damage.

Of course, cattle are good at finding these fence holes, and a small group of them was missing for several days in the wooded, swampy areas surrounding the pasture ground.

Luckily, the missing cattle were found, but had already been penned by a neighboring horseman, who wanted to see proof of ownership before releasing them. Now, this was fine for the registered Brahman cattle, but this neighbor did not understand that commercial cattle didn’t come with such paperwork.

This is a situation that can easily be solved by printing a cattle inventory list that includes basic identification information for each missing animal, in just minutes. While it’s not really “proof of ownership,” these records at least show you had these cattle entered in your system, and were keeping track of them, which will most likely suffice.

Not only do good cattle records affect your herd management, even the most basic records can also help in these all to common situations we face. Think about the information you might need in situations like this, and how your current cattle records might help. Do you need to make some changes?

CattleMax records every form of cattle identification available, has fields for color markings, and enables you to keep unlimited cattle pictures. It might be time to begin taking advantage of these record areas, if you’re not doing so already.