Back in the day, Marion County (probably the whole state of FL) was
"open range". This means that cattle did not have to be fenced in but
could wander at will. There were two methods used to identify owners,
marking and branding. Both seem somewhat cruel by todays standards.
Marking consisted of cutting the ears in specific ways. For example,
our mark was a crop, two slits and an underbit in one ear and a slit
and an underbit in the other. Crop blunted the end of the ear by
clipping the end off. A slit was a small "V" shaped notch on the end.
An underbit was a half moon clip on the underside of the ear.
Branding consisted of heating a specific shaped iron very hot and
burning that brand into a rear flank.
Here's a picture of our branding iron. The letters "JC" represent
my father's name, James Clark Mixson.

See the link below for a related anecdote involving Grandma Onnie.