I Really Doubt It

<a href="http://www.billingsgazette.com//index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/09/25/build/state/50-montana-cattle.inc">Branding on way out as ID for Montana cattle</a><br />n<br />nBranding on the way out? Not a chance. Even when, yes I say when even though I don't like it, the whole Herd Identification System (HIS) is implemented branding will not go out. It is the easier more accurate way to identify your cattle when you are out on the range. Their fancy new HIS requires you to scan the ear tag with fancy electronic equipment which you can't carry around with you all the time and requires you to get close enough to the animal to scan it which on the open range just don't happen very often. Hell, it might be miles to the nearest containment facility, corral, to capturize the critter and scan the stupid ear tag that they have prove works less than 90% of the time.<br />n<br />nI can read a brand from a long ways away with out any special equipment but my normal glasses so it is not going to die. The Government might have decided it won't work for their fancy, all electronic, nobody can understand, government controlled, push the little guy out, where the hell am I supposed to find electricity to run the damned thing, HIS but the brand will still be too handy for those who survive the transition to quit using.<br />n<br />n<b>Doubt, it seems to me, is the central condition of a human being in the twentieth century. Salman Rushdie</b>