2021: The Year to Re-Record Montana Livestock Brands
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Officials from the Montana Department of Livestock announced recently that the Montana Livestock Brand Re-record period began January 1, 2021 and will end at midnight on December 31, 2021. Brand Re-record packets were sent to registered brand owners during the week of December 14, 2020.
During this one-year period, the Montana Department of Livestock (MDOL) will be re-recording 55,576 Montana Livestock Brands. Every ten years, those who own a brand for cattle, horses, sheep, and bison in the state must renew their brands with the MDOL. Livestock brands are not only used for animal identification and theft prevention but for traceability purposes when situations of animal disease arise. The 2021 Montana Livestock Brand Re-record fee is $175.00 per Brand.
About the renewal process, Mike Honeycutt, Executive Officer of the Livestock Department, explained: "I'm sure most people want to hold onto their registered brands. So, they'll have to get those brands re-recorded during this twelve-month period to maintain ownership over the next ten year period that runs through 2031."
Anyone who has not received a Montana Livestock Brand Re-record packet is encouraged to contact the MDOL by calling the agency's Brand Re-record Hotline number (406) 444-1278 or by emailing brands@mt.gov. Additional questions can also be directed to the Brand Office using the aforementioned contact information.
To successfully re-record a Montana Livestock Brand, a registered brand owner can choose one of the following options:
• Renew on-line and make payment using a personal credit card. The on-line 2021 Brand Re-record link became active and ready to use on January 1.
• Return the Brand Re-record notice and the $175 per brand fee in the envelope provided in the Brand Re-record packet, making checks payable to "MT Dept. of Livestock."
• Drop the Brand Re-record notice and the $175 per brand fee into the lock box located in the lobby of the Helena office.
In an effort to limit close contact, the Helena Brand Office is currently closed and serving the public remotely, or if necessary, by appointment only. Officials offer this advice to those completing renewals: Re-recording on-line is the fastest and most convenient option to re-record brands; however, there is a minimal transaction fee.
They also caution that any brands not re-recorded by midnight on December 31, 2021 will become inactive. Once a brand is inactive, there is no guarantee that the brand will be reissued.
According to the agency's website, many brands have been in the same family or ranch for over 100 years. When researching genealogy, brands owned in past generations play a part in telling the story of the American West. To preserve that heritage, author Ivan Doig and his wife Carol donated a large sum to the MDOL in 2002. The MDOL joined efforts with the Montana Historical Society to have historical brands placed on microfilm. at the time of his legacy gift, Doig said: "Brands are the classical language of the American West." Today, ranchers continue to keep that language alive and vibrant through the recording process.
The Montana Historical Society Research Center currently retains historical brands of the MDOL, Brand Enforcement Division from 1873 through 1980 and from 2001 through 2011. These collections are preserved through the Montana Memory Project (MMP), an online source for digital collections documenting the Montana experience. Using these scanned, searchable images of the brand records, a person can trace a brand through several decades and glimpse a piece of a family's historical puzzle.
According to their website, the mission of the MMP "encourages cultural institutions to digitize historic and contemporary resources reflecting Montana's rich cultural heritage and to make them freely available for lifelong learning."
