Wisconsin

and easy to do in the rain. I always get nervous on rainy days. with small concentrated herds it only takes a few minutes to load a pile of cattle. and since the US beef herd is at record lows, the prices for live animals is at record highs. those animals could be hundreds of miles away by the time they were noticed missing.

this is the main reason for branding cattle. it is required by law in my state. very hard to hide or change a brand (while it can be done, having a bunch of animals with altered or fresh brands is very sus)