There’s been a “tremendous rise” in the number of ranchers using ear tags, according to University of Missouri Extension livestock specialist Eldon Cole. But in many cases, they’re not getting the best use out of those tags.
Cole told Ozarks Farm & Neighbor, “Most of them do not have a good numbering system, where they can keep track of that calf if it’s a female that they leave in the herd for replacement. They don’t really monitor the genetics that the calf came from, or any of the performance traits that tagged heifer would have.” In many cases ranchers simply put a tag on a newborn calf with a number that corresponds with one worn by the mother, so the pair can be matched up. Also, with cattle prices at record highs this past year, many producers may have turned to ear tags as a theft deterrent; however, tags can be easily torn out and branding is a much more permanent method of identification.
Cole said the greatest value of the tag is for recordkeeping. “I’d like to think that some of our Extension or Cattlemen’s Association efforts at trying to encourage people to do a better job of recordkeeping have stimulated that tagging enthusiasm,” he said.
He recommended producers apply a tag with a unique number to the newborn calf as soon as they can, but not necessarily at birth – it can get accidentally ripped out in that first 24 hours or so. It should be different than the mother’s number because “on down the road, if you keep that calf in the herd, it needs its own unique number,” he said. “We think that one of the best ways to tag the calf is to the use the international system of including its year of birth in that tag number,” which would be B for calves born in 2014, C in 2015, and so on. “Number the calves consecutively, so your first calf born in 2014 would be B1; your tenth calf born would be B10.”
This also tells you which cows breed back the earliest. Dr. Tom Troxel, University of Arkansas Extension cattle specialist, noted, “It’s becoming more important to identify the higher producing cows, and the faster gaining calves.” Troxel told OFN numbering systems vary from ranch to ranch, and many producers keep the data in a calving book that they carry with them or keep in the truck.
Eag tags, like any other management tool, should be used to help the producer make decisions. “If you take the time to tag a calf, match the calf up with the cow, and then use that identification to weigh the calf and the cow and identify weaning 205-day weights,” he said. “Use that information to identify your better producing, better growing heifers for heifer selection, to be able to identify your cows that may be on the low end of performance for culling, and to identify your better producing cows to be able to select the heifers from those cows. That’s where the real benefit comes in from tagging calves and using that information.”
Brucellosis or “bright” tags can also be used; they are metal tags that go into the right ear, and are assigned individual numbers. “They do stay with the animal; the retention rate is very high,” Troxel said. But it’s difficult to employ them as identification tools. “You have to catch the animal, put it in a head gate, catch the head and read the tag in a chute,” he said. “You can’t read the individual tag number in the field like you could with a tag that would be hanging down. A lot of producers like to have a plastic tag with a number on it that you can see in the field.”
Other tips: if you’re using blank rather than prenumbered tags, write clearly and legibly. If you feel the need to put information about the calf’s parentage or date of birth on the tag, do so on the back, not the front. Tagging male calves in one ear and females in the other can aid in sorting sexes later. And don’t get used tags from the working chute at the local sale barn; get fresh tags from one of many authorized sources. Said Cole, “A $1.25 tag for a $1,500-$2,000 cow, or her $900 calf, isn’t a bad investment.”
