Brands were, and continue to be, a critical element of the cattle industry unless –bonus fun fact!– you happen to have been 19th century Texas politician and rancher Samuel A. Maverick, who ...

Suddenly, the wholesale water supplier for the Las Vegas Valley needed its own cattle brand. The design job fell to senior public information coordinator Lisa Riess and graphic artist Cathy Leece.

Cattle brands mark an animal with a unique design so it can be identified if the animal is lost or stolen. In Collin County, the process dates back to the 1860s -- and so did the registration process.

Debbie Davison, with the sale yard, and Skyler Flint, with the state brand inspectors office, check the paperwork against the brand for each head of livestock passing through, Friday, Dec. 21, 2018.

Cattle branding, 1864. S. T. G./State Library of Victoria. By the latter half of the 19th century the simpler alphabetical brands had all been used up so the designs became increasingly complex ...