ear tags suck

[Workinonit Farm]

tags in each ear..

tattoo

Where I used to work, it was a tag n each ear as well as an RFID button.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

yeah I have guard rail but only in the pens and have never found a tag there....maybe ill try the allflex cuz the ytex are just sucking

Personally, I prefer the AllFlex. I've had good luck with those.

 

[wbvs58]

Freeze brands on the rump are hard to beat, easy to pick individual cows out from behind when they are standing at a trough.

I freeze brand mine with the property brand then a year letter then their number in order of calving.

Ken

 

[Tbrake]

I use z tag feedlot tags for all my steers, they are lucky to last to yearlings. I've had allflex maxi's in cows ears for 6 years now. Only a handful have lost theirs. I put allflex in everything I plan to retain or sell as replacements. I've talked to a lot of people and most think allflex is one of the best for longitivtiy

 

[Supa Dexta]

Tag in each ear and an rfid button and purebreds have a tattoo. May start branding some as well.

Had ztags in everything, using more Atags now.

Just spent over 500 last week topping up my calving tags, sucks paying for it, but I hate not knowing who's who more.

 

[snoopdog]

I think we're using allflex now , only had 1 failure so far . We are hot branding also, because of activity we have observed from others close by .

 

[Putangitangi]

I've been using Allflex for years and there are more cows without tags than wearing them. They're hopeless tags if you farm with trees and ticks. My cows itch their ears and the tags break.
Fortunately I know my cows well enough that I still know 710 is that tagless black cow.

The expense will be when I have to send them off and they have to have a replacement RFID put in, to replace the one they've already lost since it was put in at birth. Most of these cows are not even very old.

 

[Waterway65]

I use z tags on 90 plus cows for the last ten years. I place a tag in each ear. I have to replace ten to fifteen tags every six months. I read topics like this all the time looking for a better product.

 

[fasttommy]

I do not know from personal experience but I know a few people that have gone to brisket tags because they felt they stayed in better.

 

[skyhightree1]

lose em..break off...don't know what cow is what...age..last calf...etc..

o I gotta come up with a better system than the y tags that I have a bunch of or a different brand..


or brand em...which I don't have the first clue about...but I don't have a brand or irons or any idea which way is best. freeze em...burn em...electric....fire....

whats the other options besides the crappy ear tags

don't ask how I know but if you don't cut all the twine off a bale your tags disappear pretty quickly

 

[Katpau]

I have used the Ztags for about the last 20 years. It is very rare to lose one, but under the right circumstances they can get caught and tear through the ear, but they don't get brittle. I have plenty of 15+ year old cows with their original tag and they are still legible. The trick is to use the Ztag marker. Anything else will fade out in just a few years. The markers have a chemical reaction with the tag that must soak it down into the plastic.

 

[dun]

We've only ever lost one z-tag. We also tattoo the animals individual ID in the right ear for anything that isn;t sold as a feeder

 

[M-5]

We've only ever lost one z-tag. We also tattoo the animals individual ID in the right ear for anything that isn;t sold as a feeder

Welcome back dun

 

[dun]

Thanks

 

[Big Cheese]

We use Duflex Extra Large tags. We also use blank Duflex Extra Large tags on our newborn calves as well and they very rarely lose a tag. We have started leaving the tags in our replacement heifers ears that they got as they were born as well as the regular numbered Duflex tag so that they have two tags in their ear in case they do lose the tag we know at least who they are until we can get a new tag in their ear.

 

[pdfangus]

Before we sold the bulk of the herd, and this was six or seven years ago now.....I was going to go to injectible electronic ID.
now that I have a few cows again and have actually registered a couple this year and last I may look at it again. The inject-able id is reasonable cost and the readers have come down considerably.....

FOR THE RECORD....I think it is idiotic to put permanent electonic ID on a tag which is a temporary ID....but that is what the feedlot and packer segments wanted and that is what we got....

There are even some electronic Ids out there now that are interactive....I may bite the bullet and invest in them...

Right now all of my mature cows have a collar on them with the number written on the collar....My cows are in with a neighbors and I want no confusion over which are my cows...and there is none....

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

After reading all the negative comments about eartags that myself and others on here think work great, I have decided it is environment and management more than the quality of the eartags.

 

[pdfangus]

After reading all the negative comments about eartags that myself and others on here think work great, I have decided it is environment and management more than the quality of the eartags.

there is no doubt that these are big factors....

feeding round bales in a ring feeder is where I find many old tags....I have found them hanging on a barb wire fence...I have seen one animal pull one out of another animals ear with its mouth.

I absolutely hate having an animal split its ear because the tough tag would not break and it hung on something....I have never seen the cause of those but have had the split ears.

but I still maintain that a plastic ear tag is a temporary ID Device and was never meant to be permanent ID....that is why most breed associations require either a Tattoo or a brand

animals will put their heads in strange places. I once had a two year old bull get caught in the base of a hollow tree. there was a triangle shaped hole at the base and for some reason he stuck his head in there and when he raised his head he was caught....I had a devil of a time getting him out of there...I finally had to cast him without breaking his neck and then drag him away from the tree to extricate him....once he was down his head would come out of the base of the hole. He lost his tag. But otherwise he was unhurt...

 

[Nesikep]

in cases where the pin of the tag breaks off, I found that some brands have longer pins than others, and the longer pin makes it easier for the back of the tag to get hung up on stuff.
The fencebusters are always going to lose their tags.. though I have some well behaved cows that are 12 years old with their original tags in, though faded out now.. double and triple coats of ink on the tag does help a LOT.. and HEAVY coats

If you want something cheap and permanent I'd do a tattoo

 

[Silver]

With regards to fading I agree several coats of ink helps it last much longer. Seems to me it was Oldtimer that claimed that putting in the microwave for a few seconds after applying the ink helped draw the ink into the tag thus making more resistant to fading. Always meant to try it, but then switched to engraveable tags. Although it looks like Ritchie and Z-Tags have priced themselves out of the market this year so I'll probably be going back to Allflex for awhile.