ear tags

[dt34715]

What numbering system do you use for your ear tags. I have a small herd of beef cattle (25).

 

[dun]

When they are bron we just use a smaller off colored tag with a number on it and correlate it to what it's actaul tag number would be if we end up keeping it. We use orange or blue tags for calves and mark it down as O1 or B5 depending on the color of the tag and the number on it. We tag heifers in the left ear and bulls/steers in the right, makes it easy to tell at a glance what gender it is in the pasture.
For those that we keep we change their tag at weaning:
First character is the letter year (international standard that most breed associations use) this year is A. Then the sequential number for the calf as it was born. First calf is A1 fifth calf is A5. For older untagged cows I use the same deal but just sort of guess at their age unless they have a bangs tag. When we got Granny we tagged her B1, the second cow we got that year we tagged .1 (different years on the bangs tag). We don;t bother putting all the cow and bull data on the tag, we keep that on paper.

 

[Alan]

I have a herd about the size of yours. I simply buy tags with the number already on them, I use yellow tags for heifers and white tags for bull calves. I know it's not really a numbering system, but it's simple and works for me. All record keeping is done of a spread sheet.

 

[randiliana]

Cow just gets a #, calf gets tagged with the same # as the cow. Orange for bulls/steers, white for heifers. If we keep a heifer we just give her the next unused # and I will reuse #'s.

 

[cow pollinater]

I use a three digit system where the first two digits are the calf's number and the last digit is the last number of the year they were born. I only tag the heifer calves with a number and steers get an ear-tag with my brand on it. That keeps my numbered tags within three digits so it's easier to keep a handle on. I don't usually know who all of the calves are when I tag them so I don't even try to make the numbers match their dams ID. I can match them up well enough as I see them later.

 

[tom4018]

What numbering system do you use for your ear tags. I have a small herd of beef cattle (25).

We are only slightly bigger than you in herd size. We just go up in numerical order, it will take a while before we ever get out of the 3 digit numbers(probably be to old to worry about it then). It works for us, we keep good records so if we keep any heifers we know their age. We do bulls/steers in the right ear and heifers in the left.