- This is a production of SDPB.

- In the early days of Dakota Territory, herds of cattle graze, south Dakota's, vast rangelands seeking forage and water cattle roam free.

There were no fences to hold them.

Just wide open grasslands herds from different ranches, often razed together.

And during the annual roundup, cowboys depended on the ranch brand to identify ownership of cattle.

Over time, fences were installed by cattle producers to define property lines, and perhaps more importantly, fences help ranchers manage their cattle's grazing rotations to improve their grassland and soil health.

But fences don't always hold cattle.

And if they do wander onto a neighbor's land, or if they are stolen, their brand acts like a return address.

It helps get cattle back to their home ranch.

So even today, more than a century, after some of the last big Roundups, branding is much more than a time honored South Dakota tradition.

Brands remain essential to cattle production in South Dakota.

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- South Dakota is home to more than 3 million head of beef cattle.

And apart from a few distinctive breed traits, colors, or markings, it's tough to distinguish one cow from another.

So for more than a century, brands have been used by cattle producers to keep track of their cattle, should they wander off into Western South Dakota's.

Vast Rangeland - Brands were some of the first Dakota territorial laws were, were put in place in 1862.

Brand laws were put in place, the very first legislature they ever met in South Dakota.

It's just humbling to be part of because when Custer came across here in 74, the one of the coolest things, he came obviously looking for gold and in places to, to increase the wealth of the nation.

But what he found was a vast gold in the, the grasslands and, and people were just dying to get out here because of that.

- People like Gary Dearing's, great grandpa, Frank Wern, - You know, a lot of our minds have shut down, but we still have cattle operations.

- Gary is a fourth generation, Mead County rancher.

His family has been raising cattle west of the Missouri River for more than a century, and their cattle have carried the brand w lazy F for nearly as many years.

- It's a neat thing to have.

It's who you are.

It's, it's, it's, it's like your name.

You know people, people know you by your brand and, and they, they, they know what your brand is and what it stands for and, and riding for the brand.

I mean, that, that still means something out here.

And it's just, it's just, like I said, it's been, it's something that, that neat to think back on all the history and, and how long this has been going on and, and just to be part of that is pretty humbling.

- Purpose of a brand is possession.

Mainly if there's a lost or straight or, or even a stolen animal, they can be traced back through the Hot Iron brand to its rightful owner - Like Deering.

Les Shaw also raises cattle on his family's Mead County Ranch.

The Shaw family brand is Quarter Circle Star - Western South Dakota is a brand side of the state where we have brand laws.

Whenever something is is transported to a sail barn, it's inspected right there at the barn before it leaves the state.

It has to be inspected before you, before you transport out of an inspection area.

It needs to be inspected when you load the animal so that they know that everything that you put on that, on that truck or your trailer is yours.

And that there is nothing, nothing illegal going on.

And, and a lot of times it's not illegal.

Even there, there are times we have, it happened several times, there's a lot of Angus cattle in this country and a lot of, a lot of good cattle that, that look the same.

You'll, if it's missing an ear tag or something, you don't notice it.

And when, when springtime comes or summer and they hair off, you'll notice that that's, that's not our brand, that's not our cow.

And you call your neighbor and say, Hey, you know, I I I've got one of your cows by mistake.

Where do you want her?

And it, that's the main thing is just possession.

- Since 1937, all ranchers with brands register their brands with the South Dakota Brand Board established by the South Dakota State Legislature.

The brand board is responsible for administration oversight and inspection.

Fourth generation rancher, Debbie Trap is the brand board's executive director and like the South Dakota Livestock producers, she serves each Spring Trap's family brands.

Their new caps on the Trap Ranch, the cattle brand is L Triangle Trap said even with the introduction of electronic identification tags or EID tags in South Dakota, branding is as essential to livestock identification today as it was in the late 18 hundreds when the first cowboys ran cattle on the open range.

She explained this to SD pbs, Tim Davison.

During a recent interview, - People were like, branding gonna go away.

Mm, no, because those tags fall out.

Yeah, you can cut 'em out if you're gonna steal something, but you can't take the brand off, you know?

Right.

Still stay pretty permanent.

Right?

- The brand board is also responsible for keeping the brand book up to date.

All registered brands are located in the print or digital versions of the book.

Should you ever happen upon a cow that doesn't belong to you.

The brand book is also the quickest way to return a cow to its rightful owner.

Quarter circle, star lazy three arrow W lazy f names of cattle brands are nearly as unique as the brand itself.

Whatever the cattle brand, there's a chance the stainless steel letters, numbers and shapes used to create the brand were built by South Dakota's.

Lieutenant Governor Larry Rodin for more than 40 years, Lieutenant Governor Larry Rodin has built brands in the welding shop on his family's union center ranch.

- Started building branding irons when I was working at the welding shop at Inning and really enjoyed branding irons because, you know, nothing symbolize a ranch and ranchers, that's their, that's their trademark.

And every rancher takes a great deal of pride in his livestock and they take pride in putting their mark on that livestock.

There's, there's a lot of history there.

A lot of, you know, genetics, a lifetime of work in those herd cattle.

So they wanna put their mark on it and it's also serves as a return address.

- Rodent refers to the brand as a return address because Western South Dakota cattle producers mark each calf they own with a unique registered brand.

This way if a cow wanders onto the neighbor's property, it can be returned.

Brands also help prevent theft because brands are inspected at auction markets.

- Everybody knows everybody's brand for miles around and especially your your neighbor's cattle.

We've had instances where didn't recognize the brand, but that's why we have the brand book and that's why it's important to have good brands that you can read.

So you go to the brand, brand book and look up the brand.

Now it's automated, so you can do it in a matter of seconds - According to rodent.

A good brand is one that can be applied quickly to a calf's hide and leave behind an easy to read mark.

- You know, there's a lot of welding shops that build a branding.

Iron will leave a lot of sharp edges and I start with, with my raw material and I round the face off, you know, so it, it burns through the hair faster and cleaner and it doesn't slide around on the critter.

The other key issue is venting tight corners.

If there's like a w or an m where there's real tight angles, they're very difficult to build an iron to keep them from blotching.

'cause there's concentration of heat in those tight areas.

So I take a lot of time after the iron's built and venting, bending those trouble areas out so they, so they don't blotch in those areas or blister the, the hide - Rodin officially became a certified welder while serving in the Army National Guard.

But the fourth generation rancher credits his dad Allen with his ability to transform a piece of raw stainless steel into what he refers to as practical art.

- Well, so I grew up with a father that was kind of a handyman and he could, he could make the proverbial silk purse outta the so here just using junk.

And so, you know, my dad was a true mentor to me, so I grew up trying to be like him - And like his dad, Roden spent much of his life raising cattle that carry the family brand quarter circle over a seven R connected.

- It was kind of unique for me because I would build a brand in iron and then I would use it and then I would watch it mature with a critter and, you know, over a period of 50 years and figured out how to do it right.

And, you know, and that's important even from, you know, being humane to our animals.

- Over the decades, Rodin has built thousands of brands for ranchers across South Dakota and beyond.

All told Rodin says most years he builds about 700 branding irons.

The most memorable is NR Connected.

It's the brand Governor Christie Nom asked him to build - After we were elected, we did, did a little research and we think we might be the first farmer rancher, governor, lieutenant governor in the history of the nation.

And shortly, a week or two after we were elected, the governor asked me to register a, a brand.

So I went to state brand office and we registered an NR connected and I've made I think over a hundred of those now.

And we put a leather tag on 'em to shake of South Dakota and donated 'em for fundraisers and, and it's been a lot of fun.

- A few years after being elected, Lieutenant Governor Rodin sold his cattle to free up time to serve South Dakotans.

However, he continues to build branding irons because he said the craft is therapeutic.

- I've always said I made probably more income out of my ranch off than I I did off the cattle or off the ranch, but really enjoyed it.

It's always, always almost been like a hobby.

I feel guilty when I'd come to the shop and start building things.

- Ranch families across Western South Dakota, own registered brands.

But for most a family's brand is more than a mark of ownership.

A family brand has a story, a legacy.

It's often passed down from one generation to the next because for many ranch families, the story behind their cattle brand is entwined with the family's history.

Great Grandpa's initials a wedding date, a business logo from the old country.

There's a story behind most of the letters, numbers and shapes that make up brands registered in South Dakota's brand book.

- Our brand is a quarter circle star, my great-granddad.

The earliest registration we had was from 1902.

A registration card on there.

We, we haven't been able to trace it back further than that, but great grandpa got here in 1896 and I surmised that he was using the brand, but it just wasn't registered.

My dad had it, my grandpa had it, and now my brother and I use it.

It's on the right rib of the cows.

And that's, that's the Shaw Ranch mark.

Well, typical family history, my great grandpapa came from Ireland and he, he worked in a shipping factory, he had a warehouse is what we were told from my grandpa.

Not a lot, but grandpa said that he marked the shipping crates with a star.

I, I'm pretty proud of it.

It's pretty neat.

It's, it's not the easiest brand in the world to put on.

The, the star can be tricky.

It takes, it takes some practice, which you get there with it, but when it's put on, well it, on a young animal when they mature like a cow, it's, it, it stands out, it shows from quite a ways.

- So yeah, my brand's a quarter circle over a seven R connected, that was my dad's brand.

I'm on dad's place, my brother's a couple miles away on the regional homestead from my granddad and his brand was a seven R over the quarter circle.

So they registered those at different times, but it's kind of typical, you know, of it just family history and that brand has passed on from generation to generation and they were lucky enough to have a brand that you use the same branding irons.

So I'd always take all my to his branding and he'd bring them his back to, to mine.

I don't know there's any story other than, you know, everybody didn picked a brand that represented them, you know, the seven are, there were five kids and mom and dad, so there were seven of us, but I don't think dad knew that when he registered the brand.

But you know, obviously we are, but they always register something that appealed to them or had their initials or, you know, something that was unique enough.

I remember the conversation because I was on the place with him and, and, and he still owned the main herd and I had my, a share of the cattle and I bought a brand from a neighbor, a different brand, and he was telling, we were visiting about one day and he said when he was done, he was gonna give that brand to my oldest brother who'd lived in Denver and never had any wishes to come back into place.

And, and I corrected him, I says, well, I want that brand.

And, and he was, he was tickled about that because if I was going to give up the brand that I had bought because I wanted that brand passed down from the former generation.

- 1911 was a, a very dry year and it's one of the big worst droughts we've ever had in, in South Dakota and in the Midwest.

And, and my, my grandpa, great-grandpa Frank Wernick, he was looking for places to take a stock.

So he, he, he saddled the whole horse and, and started going down the Belfour River and, and he ran into some people and they had a, had a little land on, on the Belfour River, which is just south of where I live right now.

And that's, that's where he bought that in 1911.

Well, the F is backwards and, and I don't know if if he intended to do that or not, to be totally honest with you, never met my great grandpapa Frank, but they tell me he spoke very broken German, so he might've just went in and put a mark down and, and didn't realize that it's lazy, lazy meaning it's tipped on its side and the f obviously if as as this one would be, as if it was standing up, it'd be going backwards.

So I don't know, like I said, when he tipped it on the side, if he was, if he had meant that or he had some good German beer at the time or what happened, but nonetheless it's backwards.

Yeah, it's a w and a a lazy backwards f and like I said, my great grandpa Frank, we hence his name and initials I, I'm not real sure when it was first registered.

I've seen it in 1937 brand book I believe.

So it was registered as far back as, as then I, I assume he's probably used it with his initials whether it was registered or not.

But I, I don't know exactly how far that went back.

My grandfather, George Warnick then took over the ranch in, in 1944.

And now my parents and how I am using it and my, like I said, my kids are the fifth person, fifth generation to flip that ran off.

So - Rounding up cattle and branding cabs is hard work, but often a ranch family does not go it alone because their friends and neighbors travel to help making each branding a social event of sorts with plenty of food and fellowship, just what's needed after a long winter and late nights of cavi each May, Courtney and Tim Michelson and their four children call upon family, friends and neighbors to help them brand on their marine ranch.

- You know, Jake back in Chicago, I never thought I'd be punching cattle, mostly belonging to other guys.

Yeah, using trucks for wrestling is the latest thing.

Come on, let's get going for them.

Blood Hons, wake up - Stealing cattle is the thing right now that's happened out here since we've lived here.

- You think that's an old west deal, but it happens every day across the US right now.

Even when livestock are worth money, somebody's gonna want to take - 'em.

When Tim was running yearlings, cattle went missing from on our place.

Sheriff got called and they were never found.

My sister-in-Law lost, I'm not sure how many, A couple trailer loads I believe of sheep.

They haven't been found.

People are watching and when they know you're not there they might come and and steal them.

So it's really important to have that brand on there because that's just one other way that the police can try to find your cattle for you that just be like you're, anything that you own any other human owns, they'd want it back too.

And this is our livelihood.

Yeah, it's a real thing that goes on all the time.

- Family brand.

I purchased that brand from the South Dakota brand board close to 20 years ago.

- Well Tim had the brand before he met me, so it's a lazy three arrow.

It's just a one iron brand, which is really handy for - Me.

It's nice just because it's less stress on the livestock, it's quicker at branding.

I, I don't like to hurt calves anymore than you have to or the cows.

And so the less iron on flesh you can have, the better, in my opinion.

- People from town that I've spoken to, even my sister, she thinks it's terribly cruel and mean.

I can see where she would think that it does hurt them.

It's not a pleasant thing.

I like to think of it sort of like when you have a son and you're at the hospital and he is a day old and he gets circumcised.

He's the, it's quick.

He's never gonna remember it, you know?

And so that's why I kind of try to think about it for the cattle.

Yeah it hurts, but it's quick.

We try to make it as painless as possible and it serves a very important purpose.

It's not just something we do to just hurt the cattle.

- As a beef producer, you want your beef to be the best that it can be and if it's carrying your brand, that cow is always gonna be marked for the life as having come from your place.

So the brand, as much as the cow itself represents what you're spending your time doing, whether it's in the sale barn or makes good beef, the person selling that beef knows where it came from because of the brand.

That's what it's all about.

All the people here helping us, we will go help them at their branding.

I mean it starts in the end of April, runs through the first part of May.

It's just branding season, it's track season, it's branding season now.

- A lot of stress.

Well, Tim takes care of all the cattle stuff.

Setting up the crows, calling the people.

He discusses like the dates with me and we figure out what date works the best for me.

Planning out the meals, getting the vaccine.

It's spring so the yard's kind of a disaster.

Clean up the yard.

So yeah, it's a good three days of work right up to the branding and then several weeks beforehand, just the planning.

- I know the wifes are very underappreciated, possibly overlooked might be a better word for it.

They don't see how much a ranch wife does to keep that ranch going.

Whether it's encouraging or cooking the meal for the branding crew or the Craig testing crew or the, you name it, there's something going on all the time and yeah, can't say enough about, - There are a lot of wives out here that are a cowgirl and a ranch wife.

I am a ranch wife, not a cowgirl.

I grew up in the cities.

I help whenever he needs me, I'm always there.

If he's got a prolapse in the middle of the night, I'm out there helping deal with that.

Yeah, it's misunderstood that when you meet a ranch wife and you think, oh, all she does is sit at home all day and knit a scarf or something.

That's not what's going on.

- I feel like I'm pretty lucky because the people we have help us are all kind of in the same boat.

They're ranchers.

They know what they're doing, they're good.

Solid help.

I can pretty much say, here's the pasture, let's gather it.

I might delegate one person to go one way with a group of people and one to go another.

But for the most part, everybody can see what needs to be done.

- We're all pretty good about doing things the way that whoever's branding you're at wants it done.

Everybody does it a little different.

You learn what they want and you do it their way.

At the end of the day, everybody wants it to go smoothly.

No one to be hurt.

Lease trauma on the cattle.

People step in, they see what needs to be done, they do it.

Branding season lasts seems as like forever for a while.

So you get lots of practice and you get really good by the end of it.

- It does get to be a very efficient machine because they can see what's happening.

They can see a wreck before it happens.

I'm really encouraged with the people that we work with.

They're very encouraging to the kids.

They're telling them, good job, they're upbeat.

They're not just being critical.

When they do something wrong, they're, they're being positive too.

And it's a fun social time.

I've said for a while kids would work for food and a pop any day of the week.

So everybody there has done it enough times that it just goes smooth, even if it's less than ideal conditions.

- Ranching is not a job.

It is your life.

That can be frustrating at times, but it really is your life and you're really cultivating in these kids a love for this way of life.

By teaching them, letting them follow you, help with everything.

Even if they're just watching or playing a really tiny part of it, you're teaching them to be great stewards of the land, the cattle to help your neighbor, to love your neighbor.

We need somebody to carry that on.

I don't think it's something you can just learn from going to school.

You, you need to live it a little bit.

So very important.

- I don't know if it's so much of passing on a tradition, but just keeping things alive and giving them the opportunities to learn and grow with.

Knowing what used to be what is and what might be in the future and trying to adapt and still have a livelihood to do it with.

I guess - I feel very proud of watching the kids out there to watch how they help others and how they're excited to go help others at other people's brandings.

I know my husband, when we have been gathering before, has leaned over to me and said, oh, I am just so happy.

Look at our herd.

I've always dreamed of this.

It's his dream come true.

And he just feels very proud of it and very blessed that he's had this opportunity.

It's, it's really hard to become a rancher without just inheriting or somehow having a really good way in.

And God's blessed him and let him do that.

- Branding is among many traditions passed down to the next generation because caring for livestock and stewardship of the land is more than a job.

It's a way of life that is ranching in South Dakota.