How they mark bred cows differs

[Dave]

It is interesting how many ways they have to mark bred cows. This a picture of a cow that came through La Grande last week. She has a blue paint 4 on the hip. That means the vet called her 4 months bred. The horizontal line on her shoulder means she is a solid mouth cow. A spread mouth cow would have a vertical line on her shoulder. A BM cow the vertical line would be about mid way. A vertical line on the hip means she is a smooth mouth cow. The horizontal line with a dot above it would be a 3 year old. Heifers get an H on the shoulder. Paint on her tail head would mean she was not bangs vaccinated.
Vale is similar but not the same. I always have to think about it when there. The bangs vaccination gets a big V or NV on the cows side. And the tail head is the mark for 8-9 year old cows.
At Toppenish they put colored ear tags in them. There is a big board above the auctioneer explaining the different colored ear tags and which ear they are in and their meaning.
And the E/lazy D on the right rib means she belongs to me or my wife. But she doesn't claim them very often.

 

[BC]

Here in East Texas, most barns put age right behind the shoulder - H for heifers, 1 - 7, SS or 0. Pregnancy is on the hip. They use the numbers for their best guess of how many months bred.

 

[Brute 23]

I have not seen age markings on cows before. I'm going to look harder next time to be sure but it has me curious now.

 

[farmerjan]

Some of the local stockyards will have BM or SS on the cows and the # of months bred on them... sometimes they will say 5 or 6 or 7 as age in yrs... with the # months bred on there also. Never seen the lines that you have out there @Dave .

 

[crossbredcalves]

Our local sale barn is Cattleman's Livestock exchange in Charlotte, Arkansas. They started using colored ear tags for Open, 1st, 2nd, 3rd period bred. Then they write the number of the age on the tag: 1-7, SS, O.

 

[kenny thomas]

We age the cows from 1-9. Short smooth gets a 0, broken mouth gets a 00.
Months bred goes from 1 to 8.
This is written on a tag thats glued on their back just like the sale tag is.
So a 6 year old cow thats 7 months bred shows 6-7 on the tag. 5 year old and 2 months bred is 5-2.
Some places i have sold in KY do not age the cows, just preg check them. So an old cow in good condition sells much higher there.

 

[A.J.]

Our local sale ages them from 1 to a 4 on the front. 1 is 1-4 years old, 2 is 4-8, 3 is 8-12, and 4 is 12+. They put the months bred on the back.

 

[kenny thomas]

Our local sale ages them from 1 to a 4 on the front. 1 is 1-4 years old, 2 is 4-8, 3 is 8-12, and 4 is 12+. They put the months bred on the back.

Many sales i go to does that. My point is if i want to buy nothing over 5 the 8 year old is marked just the same as the 5.

 

[MurraysMutts]

We age the cows from 1-9. Short smooth gets a 0, broken mouth gets a 00.
Months bred goes from 1 to 8.
This is written on a tag thats glued on their back just like the sale tag is.
So a 6 year old cow thats 7 months bred shows 6-7 on the tag. 5 year old and 2 months bred is 5-2.
Some places i have sold in KY do not age the cows, just preg check them. So an old cow in good condition sells much higher there.

Most places around here are similar.
Either a glued on tag. Or an ear tag that hand written.
Anything over 9 years old is just old at most sales.
There's one sale that does the whole short, short solid (ss), broke mouth (bm)

Age first. Months bred second.

I watch a sale in winfield online. The preg em by stage. 1st second or third. Some P, P-plus or P-minus

Some of this crap is a bit frustrating when your not familiar with it!

 

[BC]

I have not seen age markings on cows before. I'm going to look harder next time to be sure but it has me curious now.

Brute got yo get east of I-45.

 

[Brute 23]

Brute got yo get east of I-45.

That is what CT is for... I can virtually travel so I don't have to actually travel.

 

[SBMF 2015]

The barn we go to uses different colored index cards; yellow- open, blue- first stage, pink- 2nd stage, green- 3rd stage. Then they write the age on the card 1-9, SS-short &solid and A- aged.

The barn/ vet I worked for put chalk marks on their hips O I II III for the stages and tags on their forehead 1 for 9-12 years and 2-for broken mouth.
In the spring we would II+ the late 2nd stage cows.

 

[gcreekrch]

P for pregnant before May 1, L for late.. May 1 to June 15, LL for later than June 15. No one wants late or fall calves here. Not many calve in winter any more in this area either.
Take your chances on the ages. I call it the Co op sort and will ask for older cows to be reweighed.

 

[BFE]

Sticker with age on top and stage bred (1-3) on bottom. So 6/2 is 6 years old 2nd stage bred or 3-6 months.

 

[tex452]

Sale barns here put how many months bred on the hip, age on the shoulder

 

[Dave]

Sticker with age on top and stage bred (1-3) on bottom. So 6/2 is 6 years old 2nd stage bred or 3-6 months.

i would really hate buying cows right now with a 3-6 months spread on how far they are along. Those 3 and 4 month bred cows are April and May. I fully realize that the vets aren't exact on how far along a cow is but I want February-March calves.

 

[tex452]

Here we like anything after Christmas to march

 

[CowboyRam]

This is how they mark the bred cows at Riverton Livestock Auction here.

 

[Travlr]

It is interesting how many ways they have to mark bred cows. The horizontal line on her shoulder means she is a solid mouth cow. A spread mouth cow would have a vertical line on her shoulder. A BM cow the vertical line would be about mid way. A vertical line on the hip means she is a smooth mouth cow.

What is a "spread" mouth cow? I'm familiar with short and solid, broken mouth, and smooth mouth, but not spread mouth.

 

[kenny thomas]

This is how they mark the bred cows at Riverton Livestock Auction here.

View attachment 37771

My only problem with this is if im buying 3 or 4 year old cows for someone i dont want 5 and 6 year olds.