Cattle Identification

[matthiaswh]

Hi everyone,

I'm working on writing up some info about livestock tagging and numbering, and I just wanted to get some opinions and ideas from some different industry communities. Any help is appreciated.

I basically have two questions for you:

1. What sort of numbering system do you use for your herd?

2. What sort of tagging systems do you use?

Thanks again!

Regards
Matthias

 

[dun]

We tag at birth. The animal ID is the universal year code and the sequentil number of the calf. First calf this year was X1, 10th calf was X10, etc.
Left ear for females right ear for males

 

[matthiaswh]

Thanks dun. I was curious if I would find many people using the universal year code as opposed to a single digit for the year.

 

[deenranch]

We tag at birth... Bulls in right and heifers in left..

We use the last didget of the year and the cows # for the calves...

Cow #1 had a calf and it's # is 001... Cow #100 has a calf and it's # is 0100....

 

[xbred]

i use the year weaned/production year and the sequential # of birth...first calf this year was 1001..all home raised are tagged in left year, bought cows in right ear..

 

[Angus Cowman]

We just put the cows # on the calf and use white tags for hfrs and yellow for bull calves
if we decide a hfr is replacement quality we then use the universal yr letter in front of the number she already has

#86 is out of #86 cow if and when she is kept as a replacemnet her tag gets changed and her new # is X86

 

[Santas and Duhram Reds]

what do you do then when x86 has a calf and it is a keeper as well

 

[BC]

First number is the year the calf is born. Calves are numbered in the order they are born.

 

[Angus Cowman]

what do you do then when x86 has a calf and it is a keeper as well

then it would get the letter of the corresponding yr that it was born
example
2012 would be Z-X86

 

[redcowsrule33]

Same as Dun, except the tags all go in the left ear, and the tags are color-coded based on the breed of the calf's sire.

 

[AudieWyoming]

I wrote about this once on another forum/topic. I will try to find it and paste it here. @

As much as I hate trying to read 4 digit tags, on the registered cows I feel the cow family is so important I devised this system.

First number- year born, next two numbers identify cow families 00 to 99, last number is year her mother was born. Example 6882 is an '06 cow from the 88 family, I know her mother was 288? Her this years calf would be 0886. (Read 0-88-6)For most purposes I still just call the cows by the first 3 digits ie. Cow 688 had a bull calf this morning.

I know this line decends from the '89 foundation cow 988E by Baldridge Oscar. ( Foundation cows got a letter for where they came from because I didn't care who or how old the dam was.)

Bulls get tagged in the right ear, heifers in the left to leave room for the bangs tatoo in the right. I also use a different color for the heifers and bulls then switch to two new colors mid-calving season so that later when picking replacements and you get down to the last cuts, If I have 2 yellows and three greens I know the greens are 30 to 40 days younger and ship the older calves. I code the sire up in the neck of the tag, I generally put the date on back when they are born but don't really worry about the exact date, its just nice to be able to flip the tag if I have their head caught.

Over time some families will die out and certain cows will dominate the herd. Today all the cows can be traced to just 16 of the original cows, in fact over one third of the current cows trace to just 2 cows, the 37's and the 88's.

Its getting late and this is too long, I will try to come back later and explain how I got around too many replacement heifers with the same number. @

 

[AudieWyoming]

The problem comes up when you get 3 maternal sisters in the herd say 1889, 2889,6889, plus third generation cows 0882,8886, and 0882's daughter 4880. Now suppose in 2009 four of these cows have good heifer calves. 9881, 9886, 9888,and 9884, no problem! until these 4 heifers calve, then you have 4 calves with the number 1889 plus the 10 year old cow

The rule is only one replacement heifer can carry the family number into the replacements per year, and I start looking for unused numbers and reasons for certain heifers to start their own branch of the family. (maybe 2 of the heifers are sired by a new A.I. sire I have high hopes for.)In the case above the 10 year old cow was a proven bull mother but had no other offspring in the herd so I changed her tag to 1669 and her heifer to 9661 and they became the "66 branch of the "88's". (66 looks kind of like 88. ) So the 2 heifers by the new bull become "9868 & 9444" (44 is half of 88. ) Doesn't mean any thing to anybody else but when I see 88's, 66's.44's,86's and 80's at least I know they all stem from that old Baldridge Oscar X PS Powerplay cow from Ericksons.

By the same "Aud" logic I know 3471,3578,3671,3730,4375' 5775,6370.7473,8473,8775,9473,9573 &9747 all go back to that first 137C heifer bred by Mick Cox in Nebraska. As a side note; around here anyway, there is no better way to give a young cow the " kiss of death" than to change her cow number and ask her to start her own cow family. The 37's and 88's must have been really strong cows to have overcome that jinx.

My herd is small enough by the time a cow is 10, I know her well enough not to give her number to a heifer. I have never run this system on more than a hundred cows but I guess if you start with 300 to 500 cows you could change tag colors every 100 cows (x00-x99) and just go with 3 digits on the foundation cows.

At some point it just becomes too complicated and you loose any benefit or ability to be able to link cow families in the pasture at a glance. @

 

[snichols264]

Calves get the same # as the cow that had them. If they become replacements, the tag is changed to a different #.
Bulls right ear, heifers left ear.
I have also started recording the number on their metal Brucellosis tag in the record book so I can identify the cow if she loses both her plastic ear tags.

 

[3waycross]

Purple tags for the Registered Gelbvieh's preprinted with everything but the yearcode.
Green tags for the Balancers same as above.

I am buying them preprinted 50 for each color and I can do multiple years with the same set by just adding the year code.

Also left ear for bull calves and right for heifers.

Dam's number is always on the back of the tag.

 

[pdfangus]

First number is the year the calf is born. Calves are numbered in the order they are born.

this is what I did for years as well.

if a heifer is good enough to keep you will remember who her mother is.
no elaborate systems needed.
also adding a digit every year you eventually have to start dropping digits and the system looses validity.
my neighbor uses this dam number plus system and it is difficult for a stranger (me ) to help him sort cattle because so many numbers are alike.

S03T SO3U SO3P SO3
TO3 TO3U TO3P TO3W

They get all balled up in my head and i can not sort without a list in my hand. he can hardly do it with the list in his hand

with my pure number system I could memorize 6 or 8 and have both hands free.

then when TO3W has a heifer what is her number in a four digit tattoo?
TO3WA won't work.
O3WA would make this calf out of cow O3W
if you don't have and O3W that is fine.....
but what if you do?

I also used all numbers because I was too cheap to buy freeze branding irons and tatto digits that i would only use once every 26 years. (alpha)

 

[fit2btied]

We tag as soon after birth as possible. Calves get the universal year letter and the dam's number. If twins, an A or B is added at the end. Ex: R118 had twins on 04/12/10. They were tagged X118A and X118B. Calves will keep these numbers unless they are retained as replacements and will then be given the next number from a set of pre-numbered tags and will be tattooed with that new number. Back of the tags will show sex, BW, and DOB. Bought cows will keep their original tattoo number and year letter if they have one, otherwise they get the next available pre-numbered tag and will be tattooed accordingly. We put all tags in the left ear, leaving the right ear for fly tags and for the vet for Brucellosis tag and tattoo on heifers. We use Z-tag cow tags and longneck calf tags. We move all cattle to leased land around the end of April and leave them there until deer season if grass and water hold out. Their tag color indicates where they are wintered, green come back to my place, white go to my brother's, and orange go to my son's - makes sorting much easier.

 

[backhoeboogie]

This operation is commercial. Bull calves are banded at birth and tagged with the dam's number. If a steer does not grow out well the dam (usually a first calf cow) gets culled - depending on the situation. Heifers are number tagged and recorded. It is a sequential number and my books give the DOB. Later the heifers are evaluated for replacements. The cream of the crop seems to come from the same dams year end year out. Murphy's law generally kicks my tail in that the cows I want heifers out of have steers and vice versa.

This is not a recommendation of a numbering system but rather a system that works for me.

 

[pdfangus]

This operation is commercial. Bull calves are banded at birth and tagged with the dam's number. If a steer does not grow out well the dam (usually a first calf cow) gets culled - depending on the situation. Heifers are number tagged and recorded. It is a sequential number and my books give the DOB. Later the heifers are evaluated for replacements. The cream of the crop seems to come from the same dams year end year out. Murphy's law generally kicks my tail in that the cows I want heifers out of have steers and vice versa.

This is not a recommendation of a numbering system but rather a system that works for me.

backhoeboogie

SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD SOLID WORKABLE SYSTEM. sorry caps lock key on again...

I would evaluate those first calf heifers on getting pregnant with the second calf and cull for production with the second calf. A lot of those young cows will get better with every calf and be really rocking by the time they are four or five.

 

[randiliana]

Here's what we do, as commercial cattlemen.

Cows are simply given a number, any blank # that is available. When we sell a cow, her # becomes available for a new cow. Calves are tagged with the same # as their dam. Heifers with one color and steers with another, to make for easy sorting. When we keep heifers over to yearlings, their calf # gets replaced with a blank # in the cow herd. All info about each animal is kept in the computer, and I usually can remember most of what I need about any given cow.

 

[Suzie Q]

Okay I will admit it!!!!

Each beast has a name. I have it in the computer as to when they were born and who to, but can remember most of them and can tell who the mother is just by looking at them.

I use forum member names who give me permission to name a beast after them, so it is easy to come up with hundreds of names on being on more than one forum.