Ear Tag 101

[strihafarms]

I tag calves to match mamas number when they are born. Steers in right ear and heifers in the left. The replacement heifers get a unique number starting with last number of the year it was born then two numbers to id mama. Example cow 111 has a heifer that stays this year would be 511. Not perfect by any means that's just how I do it.

 

[WalnutCrest]

Fullbloods = blue tag
Purebreds = yellow tag
Crossbreds and Recips = red tag

Bulls in right ear
Heifers in left ear

Calves this year get tag numbers starting C01, C02, C03, etc. based on when they're born (we note dam, birthdate and sex, when they're born, and tag them later on when AI'ing, etc.). At the bottom of the tag, in smaller print, goes the sire identifier on the left and the dam identifier on the right.

 

[Terrell]

With many CattleMax customers and customers of The Cattle Tags Store (cattletags.com), we receive this question fairly often.

Below an article that talks about how to use the BIF year letter system. Also, the ear tag companies, including Allflex, can custom print your own management codes/numbers so you can buy tags say 100C to 150C and have the codes printed instead of having to deal with markers.

http://www.cattletags.com/beef-cattle-y ... signations

 

[SPH]

We use a number + the letter year but we only calve about 20 or less a year so we just look at what range of numbers we have the least of in our herd and start with that so for instance last year we started at 81 and I believe 96 was the last number calf we had, this year we started at 51 so if we keep changing which range of numbers we use every year the less likely we'll have cows with the same numbers. Right the only number duplicates we have out of 23 females are 24W and 24X and the 24W cow is one we bought from another breeder and 83S and 83B and coincidentally 83S is on our cull list after this calf crop is weaned. Just looked through the calving book, we have 3 cows with numbers in the 51-69 number range we used for 19 calves this year and all 3 calves were bull calves that matched a number we had a cow with the same number so it worked out pretty well that any heifers we retain won't share a number with another cow.

 

[WalnutCrest]

We use a number + the letter year but we only calve about 20 or less a year so we just look at what range of numbers we have the least of in our herd and start with that so for instance last year we started at 81 and I believe 96 was the last number calf we had, this year we started at 51 so if we keep changing which range of numbers we use every year the less likely we'll have cows with the same numbers. Right the only number duplicates we have out of 23 females are 24W and 24X and the 24W cow is one we bought from another breeder and 83S and 83B and coincidentally 83S is on our cull list after this calf crop is weaned. Just looked through the calving book, we have 3 cows with numbers in the 51-69 number range we used for 19 calves this year and all 3 calves were bull calves that matched a number we had a cow with the same number so it worked out pretty well that any heifers we retain won't share a number with another cow.

You could just start at (say) 00-19 for the first year, then go to 20-39 for the second, etc, and by the fifth year, you're at 80-99 and the sixth you're back to 00-19. Or, if you wanted to get real brave, you could use three digits and never have a repeat in your herd of 20-ish for the rest of your life.

Or, you could just keep doin' what you're doin' because it makes you happy.

 

[WalnutCrest]

Quite separately, anyone here use brisket tags?

I've talked to one guy who used them and thought they were really great; didn't lose any and they were lots easier to read.

 

[SPH]

We use a number + the letter year but we only calve about 20 or less a year so we just look at what range of numbers we have the least of in our herd and start with that so for instance last year we started at 81 and I believe 96 was the last number calf we had, this year we started at 51 so if we keep changing which range of numbers we use every year the less likely we'll have cows with the same numbers. Right the only number duplicates we have out of 23 females are 24W and 24X and the 24W cow is one we bought from another breeder and 83S and 83B and coincidentally 83S is on our cull list after this calf crop is weaned. Just looked through the calving book, we have 3 cows with numbers in the 51-69 number range we used for 19 calves this year and all 3 calves were bull calves that matched a number we had a cow with the same number so it worked out pretty well that any heifers we retain won't share a number with another cow.

You could just start at (say) 00-19 for the first year, then go to 20-39 for the second, etc, and by the fifth year, you're at 80-99 and the sixth you're back to 00-19. Or, if you wanted to get real brave, you could use three digits and never have a repeat in your herd of 20-ish for the rest of your life.

Or, you could just keep doin' what you're doin' because it makes you happy.

Yeah my mother has always done the tags so dad and I just let her figure it out every year. Probably will be cutting back the size of the herd I would guess sometime within the next 5 years so going from about 20-25 females to maybe 10-12 having number duplication won't be as likely. Everyone has their own system and if it works for them hard to argue with that ;-)

 

[Angus Cowman]

I tag calves to match mamas number when they are born. Steers in right ear and heifers in the left. The replacement heifers get a unique number starting with last number of the year it was born then two numbers to id mama. Example cow 111 has a heifer that stays this year would be 511. Not perfect by any means that's just how I do it.

Thats how I have alwas done it
But with numerous calves we used 4 digits lots of times
Say cow 186 had a hfr I kept Her # would be 5186 or you could also use the letter system
That corresponds to the yr like others have stated that works better especially when you start keeping hfrs out of hfrs

 

[Supa Dexta]

It's a big step to scrap the way you've done it and start fresh. Could cost a few hundred as well.. But I took the step. Cut every old tag out and started over, and simplified it. I wrote down what the old numbers were and noted it in the spreadsheet, but everything is organized now and set up in a system where it won't get out of hand again.

 

[dun]

The single most important part of tagging them is to TAG them. You can;t manage what you don;t measure or identify and without tags you can;t know who is who or their ancestry.

 

[WalnutCrest]

The single most important part of tagging them is to TAG them. You can;t manage what you don;t measure or identify and without tags you can;t know who is who or their ancestry.

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