Tagging cows on Friday

[critterair2]

tagging our herd on Friday, about 50 head. I was curious how everybody puts information on their tags. Like first number for year they were born, different colors for cows, bulls, steers. Etc. Let me know what ya'll do.

 

[Jake]

Yellow engraved tags on cows with ID number

Bulls for the most part are number branded so no tags

Calves depending on purpose (bulls, heifers, steers) have different info. They all have white tags
ID number to match cow then birth date, bulls and AI sired heifers have sire put on top of tag

 

[Brute 23]

You need to decide what all your operation is going to do. That will decide how detailed you need to be.

Are you going to keep heifers?
Are you going to sell heifer and bulls?
Selling all calves at the ring?

 

[TB-Herefords]

I have blue tags for the registered cattle and white for my commercial. Heifer left ear; steers-bulls right. On my registered cattle I put the sire in the top small print. On my commercial calves I just match the cow to calve. When I decide on my replacements for my commercial I put a new tag with a alfa numerical system, I also renumber them to fit the rest of the herd. So; 55T and 107T. T=2007 55 and 107 is order of birth. On my registered cattle I use the number system only 7005 and 7094. first number the calving year and rest order of birth. This keeps me from repeat numbers between the two. No matter what my plans for the commercial calves they get taged; helps with records. I keep avg. on BW WW of my commercial calves along with calve history of mature cows; helps my brain pick the replacements. The more records I keep on my cows the better I know them. All my tags I engrave then ink. I have not had any of them fade out that way.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Breed associations have a LETTER code for each year. This year is T. By using the alphabet, repeat numbers aren't so often - with a number for the year (7) than you could have repeats every 10 years.