Fluent in the language of livestock brands?

If so we’re hoping you can help to answer a Beef Central reader’s question.

Catherine recently posted a comment on Beef Central’s article about the Morrisey family’s history forging livestock brands and handling equipment in the same Jandowae shed in rural Queensland for more than a century.

Catherine was eager to learn some more about a piece of her own history, asking for advice on how to read an old cattle brand that has been passed down through her family.

The heirloom, pictured below, features an N (or Z) inside a circle, with a bar attached.

My family has an old branding iron passed down and I’d love to know the proper way to read it!

It is an N inside a circle with a bar attached to the right side of the circle.

The hazy recollection is that it was called Circle N 1, but would the bar be read as a number? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

It’s hard to imagine a better source of experts on this subject than Beef Central readers, so we thought we’d put this question to you.

Know how this should be read? Any thoughts or contributions welcome in the comment box below.