ears notched on heifers

[carla]

Recently bought some heifers to keep back as replacements and got to noticing that some of there ears are notched. Why do you think that this was done? I have not noticed any form of branding on the heifers. From what I understand, notching there ears goes along with some brands. Thanks!!

 

[jt]

Recently bought some heifers to keep back as replacements and got to noticing that some of there ears are notched. Why do you think that this was done? I have not noticed any form of branding on the heifers. From what I understand, notching there ears goes along with some brands. Thanks!!

i know of some larger commercial ranchers who will notch the ears of the calves that have been worked ... vacinated, wormed etc.. they have so many and they dont put ear tags in their ears, so that is an easy way for them to know which ones have been down the chute.

jt

 

[Dee]

Our vet here ear notches when they do the bangs, also an ear notch test is done for BVD.

 

[Scotty]

I have seen some notched for the bull they are out of. Also for pasture ID so one can tell if he has a visitor.



Scotty

 

[carla]

My vet does the orange metal tag for the bangs. I don't remember him notching any ears, but I'm sure they all do it different. I wanted to keep some heifers for myself and run the rest thru a special bred sale later this fall. However they are particular, and will disqualify any heifers for frozen ears and such. I'm afraid that they will not allow the notched ears. This has got me worried.

 

[dun]

However they are particular, and will disqualify any heifers for frozen ears and such. I'm afraid that they will not allow the notched ears. This has got me worried.

I would suggest checking with the sale folks before starting to worry about it. Wahtever their answer will either make them qaulified, no worry, or disqualified, not worry - but irritated.

dun

 

[sidney411]

Why would they disqualify notched ears? It has no correlation to frozen ears. I wouldn't think you would have anything to worry about, but I would, like Dun said, check with the auction folks. They'll set you strait. If the do disqualify, ask them why. I would love to hear what they say.

 

[rgv4]

Recently bought some heifers to keep back as replacements and got to noticing that some of there ears are notched. Why do you think that this was done? I have not noticed any form of branding on the heifers. From what I understand, notching there ears goes along with some brands. Thanks!!

When you register a brand, you also register how you notch the ears, {if you do it}, or at least this is how it's done in my part of the country.
Back before people were stealing cattle so bad and we had to start tattooing and tagging everything, I would just notch the ears on the calves that were going through the salebarns, then they would have an identifying mark on them without having to hot brand them.

Others that have several people running cattle in the same pasture, each will have a different ear notch to put on their calves. That way when sold, they know which calf belongs to which person.

 

[dun]

Others that have several people running cattle in the same pasture, each will have a different ear notch to put on their calves. That way when sold, they know which calf belongs to which person.

That was how it was done on the Barona Indian Reservation. Some of those calves looked like they had been attacked with pinking shears, a big ones at that.

dun

 

[docgraybull]

Others that have several people running cattle in the same pasture, each will have a different ear notch to put on their calves. That way when sold, they know which calf belongs to which person.

That was how it was done on the Barona Indian Reservation. Some of those calves looked like they had been attacked with pinking shears, a big ones at that.

dun

We notched ears for a couple of years a few years ago. We had some inexperienced hands helping on one roundup and ended up with some ears like Dun is describing. Some actually looked as though the notch had been eared a little, rather than vice versa!

 

[Scotty]

I have seen some that have had half of the ear cut off. To me it is a little overkill to do both branding and ear notches. But hey what ever floats your boat.


Scotty

 

[Jake]

as a signal of ownership, everybody has their own place for the notch to be, or a double notch even. We put ours in the left, about a quarter down from the end of the ear.


ok I got rid of it just for dun... couldn't get it to work...

 

[dun]

Boy I'ld worry about a calf with ears like that going through the sale too.

dun

 

[tapeworm]

Lately we've taken to notching ears on calves or yearlijngs that have had antibiotics. I sure as heck aint one of the all natural grass fed tree hugging dope smokers.....but I figure if a buyer wants cattle that havent had antibiotics its no big problem for me to identify them as I treat them and makes it easy to cut them off the load later if they dont want them. Satisfying the customer is what its all about.
I will admit that for a replacement female sale having just a few with notches may not be good...Gives them that put-together look if some of them have different marks than others. You want them to look like all one brand, all one raising kind of cattle to bring top dollar

 

[Craig-TX]

We notch calves when we vaccinate / castrate etc. Two on the bottom. Always have. Notching tools come in different sizes. The small tool is fine for small calves. The bigger tool, intended for big animals, does booger up their ears pretty good.

Makes it easy to know for sure which calves have been worked (especially heifers of course) and it also makes it easy to tell your own calves when they go through the ring.

Craig-TX