Electronic cattle ID

[jodywy]

But it nice to glass that bull a mile away across the fence, canyon,river and see that backward B bar on it's left rib or not..!

We still brand our cattle but since we have to use RFID tags we might as well get some value for our selves.

I can see them as a tool, and if retention is good a great tool.

[Silver]

But it nice to glass that bull a mile away across the fence, canyon,river and see that backward B bar on it's left rib or not..!

We still brand our cattle but since we have to use RFID tags we might as well get some value for our selves.

I can see them as a tool, and if retention is good a great tool.

I haven't found the retention to be great. It's a tag, after all.

[rancherfred]

We are using the Allflex half duplex tags and so far, 2+ years, I haven't lost a single one. It is critical that they are placed properly. We used some Destron Fearing for the Superior Verified program we were selling our steers on. I placed them too far away from the head of the animal and I lost a few of them. I learned where to place them and now we are having pretty good retention.

[Big Muddy rancher]

A few years back we had a couple hundred steers into a sale,as I was taking the last load in I got a call from the yards saying I was missing a whole bunch of tags. I called the wife to bring tags up 90 miles from the ranch and we ran bunch through the chute. Not missing one tag, I had them placed properly in close to the head and a couple of the yard workers didn't see them. The gal working receiving said they should of asked her as she saw them. The last pen I just took the brand inspector out and we walked them by us and could see every button on the back of the ear.
It was hot and I wasn't to happy about the extra shrink that time either.

[Silver]

The problem we've seen isn't that they get torn out, it's that after a few years the back wears thin and eventually the pin cracks out of the base. It's not like it's epidemic proportions, but it's irritating for sure.

[Big Muddy rancher]

The problem we've seen isn't that they get torn out, it's that after a few years the back wears thin and eventually the pin cracks out of the base. It's not like it's epidemic proportions, but it's irritating for sure.

It's aggravating when they are put in as calves and you keep them in the cow herd and see them crumbling away year after year.
They thought they would get blocks of numbers in so the could reissue them but not a very well thought out plan, lost tags, cows staying in herds for long time, exported cattle. They would need 20 years of lapse time before they could start numbers over.

[Traveler]

Is the electronic ID the reason that Canada cattle have an easier path to China? So why do Mexican cattle get a pass?

[Angus 62]

Because the packers own both USDA and NCBA.

I was at a meeting last week where U.S. exports to China came up as a topic. There was a guy there from Brazil that said their exports to China were minimal and for very low quality beef. He couldn't believe American cattlemen thought exporting to China was such a big deal. The longer this goes on, the more it appears it is a ruse to get American producers to buy into the same kind of screwed up ID system Big Muddy describes.