Bayfield resident Chad Moore was named Brand Inspector of the Year by the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association at its Mid-Winter Conference in Denver last week.
Moore has served as the brand inspector for the Durango District, which includes La Plata, Archuleta, San Juan, southern Hinsdale and Mineral counties, for eight years, and during the past three years, he also has been the supervisor for the Cortez and Alamosa districts.
People who aren’t in the agriculture business don’t understand all the responsibilities a brand inspector has, said Barbara Jefferies, who helped work on Moore’s nomination on behalf of the La Plata-Archuleta Cattlemen’s Association.
“When talking about brand inspections,” she said, “you usually think of horses or cattle. However, sheep, goats and other alternative animals, like elk and fallow deer, must also be inspected.”
Not only do brand inspectors check brands for livestock being transported more than 75 miles, out of state or before slaughter or sale, they work with law enforcement on lost or stolen livestock, use brands to track incidents of illnesses or contamination and inspect livestock facilities.
“To be a brand inspector, you have to have spent a lot of time around livestock, but just because you have spent a lot of time around livestock doesn’t mean you can be a brand inspector,” Colorado Brand Commissioner Chris Whitney said. “It’s part skill, part experience and part art.”
Moore and his two part-time brand inspectors in the Durango District inspect about 64,000 head of livestock each year between sale barns and those out on ranches. Moore drives between 20,000 and 25,000 miles each year because of the large area he supervises. The busiest time of the year is from the end of August to the beginning of January, when most of the cattle here go to market.
Moore’s favorite part of the job is returning missing livestock, he said.
“That’s bringing a lot of money back to its rightful owner,” he said, adding that cattle rustling is alive and well in the 21st century, albeit in a different manner. “I guess if something is worth a lot of money, somebody somewhere is going to want to steal it.”
August 2015 saw Moore going above and beyond his responsibilities, Jefferies said.
“Immediately after the (Gold King Mine) spill in the Animas River, Chad served as the point person for the Colorado Agricultural Department and the Brand Board,” she said in the nomination. “He met with members of the livestock community to help them understand the implications relating to the river water and animal health.”
Jefferies said Moore didn’t talk much about what he did after the Gold King Mine blowout, which dumped about 3 million gallons of mining sludge into the river. But she knows he checked to see that livestock in the Animas Valley had an alternate source of water until the tests were completed.
“When the state veterinarian came down to answer questions and concerns, Chad knew which ranchers watered from the Animas River and which didn’t,” Whitney said. “The state vet wouldn’t have known who to talk to, much less how to find them, without Chad.”
Moore is one of 61 brand inspectors in Colorado.
abutler@durangoherald.com