How many eartags should a bovine have?

[watcher72]

Is two enough seeing as if it loses one it can't leave the farm.

Maybe we should put 3 in all bovines so if they lose one they can still be moved?

Send an animal with 1 tag and it can't be slaughter WTF as it's not got two. It's still bloody identifiable isn't it?

 

[Bob c]

as i recall
two, we had one metal, one plastic

 

[watcher72]

as i recall
two, we had one metal, one plastic

And if it loses one on a lorry or at slaughter house?

 

[Bob c]

no idea now
cattle went 10 years ago

 

[spin cycle]

is this one of those 'how many elephants can you fit in a mini' questions

 

[Andrew1983]

Fairly sure we risk a penalty for more than 2 tags. Don’t think that applies to management tags though so could put a management plus a primary and secondary in.

 

[dt995]

I heard about an old boy who had a cow who had to wear her tags around her neck because there wasn't enough ear left to put them in.

No idea how true it might be.

 

[Nithsdale]

Is this a joke?

 

[milkloss]

Seeing as every replacement tag has to punch its own new hole for good retention I think this is a serious issue, especially as eid is likely to be forced upon us and eid tags are known for poor retention.

My cows get one replacement in each ear, if they lose that then it’s no tag until they leave the holding. In the meantime they get a write on cheapy snapped in the old hole.

I think it’s unfair to weaken animals ears with many tag holes as it increases the chance of a complete rip out which is pretty brutal if you see one. A welfare issue if you like.

 

[egbert]

I heard about an old boy who had a cow who had to wear her tags around her neck because there wasn't enough ear left to put them in.

No idea how true it might be.

Some one very near to me had a tup lamb get frostbitten or summat, cos as a shearling, it had nought but 2 stumps. Trading standards (i think it were them) advice was to put em on a string round his neck to go to the tup sale.
It sold too!

 

[egbert]

Seeing as every replacement tag has to punch its own new hole for good retention I think this is a serious issue, especially as eid is likely to be forced upon us and eid tags are known for poor retention.

My cows get one replacement in each ear, if they lose that then it’s no tag until they leave the holding. In the meantime they get a write on cheapy snapped in the old hole.

I think it’s unfair to weaken animals ears with many tag holes as it increases the chance of a complete rip out which is pretty brutal if you see one. A welfare issue if you like.

When we're right on the case, and keeping up with em.... I usually manage to sneak replacement in the same hole. Mind, if er wiggles, er gets a new hole!

 

[Princess Pooper]

We normally have one metal and one plastic, metals rarely come out but they sometimes get so worn they are hardly legible. 2 plastics are a nightmare, we did one run of 100 like that and never again, all of those cows have lost both tags multiple times. I even have a running joke with the salesman at the tag company about one cow who is an expert at losing tags. And you want us to put a third in? Ludicrous. We've never lost one on a lorry yet and our haulier says the abattoir is happy with just one anyway.

 

[milkloss]

When we're right on the case, and keeping up with em.... I usually manage to sneak replacement in the same hole. Mind, if er wiggles, er gets a new hole!

If it’s a nice tight hole (oooeeer mrs!) then, yes, it’s easy enough to do but not what the tag manufacturers recommend: New ear flesh only.

 

[egbert]

If it’s a nice tight hole (oooeeer mrs!) then, yes, it’s easy enough to do but not what the tag manufacturers recommend: New ear flesh only.

avoiding puns...
Never read the instructions mate. it's a bloke thing I daresay.
cows are grateful though.

 

[valtraman]

Used too tag calfs with one metal a plastic then s management but felt it was too many so now put two plastics in ,one has a space where we write management in. Works well but do need to keep on top of them if one is lost cos if the other goes it can be a right pain trying to trace what the animal is. Use shearwell free replacement which is a plus. Used to use zee tags but to many fell apart

 

[defender]

Fairly sure we risk a penalty for more than 2 tags. Don’t think that applies to management tags though so could put a management plus a primary and secondary in.

Don't think this is right as beef efficiency scheme needs you to put in a separate tag when you take the DNA sample so beast ends up with 3 official tags and can be management tag as well

 

[TomB]

We normally have one metal and one plastic, metals rarely come out but they sometimes get so worn they are hardly legible. 2 plastics are a nightmare, we did one run of 100 like that and never again, all of those cows have lost both tags multiple times. I even have a running joke with the salesman at the tag company about one cow who is an expert at losing tags. And you want us to put a third in? Ludicrous. We've never lost one on a lorry yet and our haulier says the abattoir is happy with just one anyway.

I think you need to find a better tag supplier. Metal tags are nearly a waste of time as so hard to read. We’ve been tagging with primary type tags in both ears. Makes tb testing so much easier and have very low losses. (A couple of % a year at a guess.)

 

[Half Pipe]

Don't think this is right as beef efficiency scheme needs you to put in a separate tag when you take the DNA sample so beast ends up with 3 official tags and can be management tag as well

Beef efficiency scheme's 1st tags got held up as it was illegal to put a tag in not for identification, think they had to apply for authority to use a tag for DNA only

 

[Samcowman]

I think you need to find a better tag supplier. Metal tags are nearly a waste of time as so hard to read. We’ve been tagging with primary type tags in both ears. Makes tb testing so much easier and have very low losses. (A couple of % a year at a guess.)

Use a primary here and an EID flag tag. Lost quite a few in EIDs in Calves this year. Lady at shearwell reckons they have a had a higher rate than normal of EID losses this year because of the dry and people using feeders more and calves searching for food in hedges more.
Some of our cows have 2 and a half official tags. If they lose the back off of one the other half stays in when the new one goes in. Never had a problem.

 

[defender]

The dna tags have full identification on them