Ear Tagging Commercial Calves

[MOFarmer2013]

Do most of you out there ear tag commerical calves? I run a cow/calf operation with about 55 head. I don't see the need to waste money on ear tagging if I am just going to sell them, but it would be nice sometimes to be able to tell them apart. What do you do?

 

[Lucky_P]

We tag 'em all - that way, we can match calf ear tag numbers with the cow, and determine which cows are doing a good job, or which bull is giving us the best calves.
After 15 years of expansion, keeping all the the very sorriest heifers from every calf crop, we're now at the point of culling cows on production records.
Unless you've got a very small herd, I'd think it would be difficult to keep up with calf performance, weight, etc.

 

[Dega Moo]

We tag everything. Allows us to track data on the calves and relate performance back to the cow and bull and measure results of decisions we make.

 

[randiliana]

We tag them all, makes it easier to make decisions on what heifers to keep, what cows are doing their job and which ones aren't. Plus its another way to prove ownership of them (if they get out). Also, we run cows on several different pastures so it makes sorting and pairing easier. We are running about 240 head

 

[Jake]

Tag them all, there is no ability to improve without records and there are no records without tags. It's $1 a head. How much money are you really saving?

 

[dun]

We do for the reasons previsouly given. You can;t manage what you don;t measure and identify. For heifers that we retain we tattoo them with their ID number in one ear also.

 

[BC]

We tag our calves. Like others have said it so we can track which cows are doing a good or poor job raising a calf. There are times when you have to make culling decisions that you were not planning on (like the drought of 2011). Having production records made that difficult decision easier.

Another thing about tagging is if you can get your hands on the calf to put in an ear tag, then you can make a steer out of the bull calves.

 

[MOFarmer2013]

Thank you.

 

[cow pollinater]

In addition to what everyone else has said, I tag them to make them look different from my neighbors calves. I also ear notch and brand but you can see the color of that tag from a quarter of a mile away when the brand and ear notch are not visible.

 

[Rafter S]

As pretty much everyone else here, I tag mine so that I can keep records. I do it when I vaccinate and castrate. And the people at the auction barn are very good about writing the tag numbers on the ticket along with the back tag numbers so I can record their weights and sale price.

 

[Kscattle]

It's a lot easier to treat a sick calf when you know which one it is. If no calves have tags, how do you know what has been treated and which hasn't? Seems like a wreck waiting to happen, especially with 55 head. I'm betting that one battle with pinkeye will change your mind on not tagging

 

[bird dog]

If you sell in groups, it adds to their uniformity look and gives the appearance that they have been taken care of. If they have been tagged, in most cases they have been through the chutes at least once.

 

[Black and Good]

I tag for all the reasons metioned as well. My heifers get a Orange tag in left ear. Steers get a Yellow one in right ear. Same number as their mom cept has a A,B,C etc. for instance 10-B would be cow #10 second calf. B&G :tiphat:

 

[Katpau]

We tag each calf at birth. Cows are brought into close pastures during calving, and we ride through twice per day. We tag and record each birth. I use the first two digits of the year plus the order of tagging as my number. For example the first calf this year is 1401. We separate individual bulls into pastures with about 25 cows each, so I know which bull sired which calf. They remain in for about 60 days. When calves are tagged I put the sire number above the calf number, and the dam number below. This enables me to easily see not only which cows are more productive, but which bulls. Cows are yellow and bulls white. The colored tags make sorting simple at weaning.

If pairs get separated or one should be injured or die, it is sure good to know quickly which pair went together.

 

[backhoeboogie]

If pairs get separated or one should be injured or die, it is sure good to know quickly which pair went together.

Exactly. Car runs thru the fence at 2a.m. What are you going to do? You put them in another pasture and there's 25 to 30 calves that look similar. At night.

7 herds adjoining fences. How are you going to know which calves are which when they get mixed?

Plus everything everyone else already said. It is simply good management.

 

[js1234]

We just earmark home grown calves and tag the replacement heifers at weaning. We do put an EID tag in all calves at branding time though. Stockers all get tags when received. I do see the value, just the logistics aren't right for us.