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An Eartag Question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
  • Start date Start date
Here are examples of what I'm seeing:

In a yearling heifer... it's been like this since last spring. If her ear had been frozen wouldn't the tip/rest of ear look bad or have fallen off???
Spring2009141.jpg


Better perspective:
Spring2009142.jpg


Calf born this spring with same thing happening. Once again, if his ear had been frozen, why does the rest of the ear still look healthy, not to mention his other ear???:
Spring2009105.jpg
 
That is frostbite. The combination of cold weather and cold plastic froze a little ear.

Think about this a minute......How is a plastic tag going to wear that much off a calf's ear in less than 2 months. If this actually was possible, there would be a constantly weeping raw wound to deal with.
 
Thinking of eartags, and string around calves' necks reminds me of an incident on the neighboring ranch to the west when I was a kid. This was back in the late 1950's, and eartags were either not yet invented or at least they were not in widespread use at the time. Clyde Weber owned the ranch and he ran the welding shop in town. His son, Bruce, operated the ranch and the cattle were in the ranch partnership. All of the cattle on the ranch were straight Herefords, and the partnership cattle were branded with a "shovel" brand on the right rib. Bruce's younger brother, Knight, had a few calves, which Knight wanted branded with his own brand. The day before the branding was to take place, Knight and Bruce's hired hand, Gary, were roping these calves to tie feedsack string around their necks so they could get the proper brand the next day. Some of the little critters were giving the ropers a hard time when it came to allowing themselves to be caught. Gary took in after one calf going pretty fast, and his horse stumbled. Gary fell off, and the loop of the lariat settled around his neck as the horse got up. The horse proceeded to run away, and Gary was dragged to death in the process. The whole event put quite a pall on branding season that year. He was a young married man who left a young widow and infant child.
 
Big Swede said:
Brand of tag doesn't matter when you're tagging frozen ears, you will lose the ear and the tag. If there is a company out there that claims differently they are full of it. One year I tied the tag around the calves necks until the weather warmed up and their ears thawed out but by then I couldn't catch the calves. :?
Click to expand...

Sounds like ya are in need of a faster horse! :D
 
Soapweed said:
Thinking of eartags, and string around calves' necks reminds me of an incident on the neighboring ranch to the west when I was a kid. This was back in the late 1950's, and eartags were either not yet invented or at least they were not in widespread use at the time. Clyde Weber owned the ranch and he ran the welding shop in town. His son, Bruce, operated the ranch and the cattle were in the ranch partnership. All of the cattle on the ranch were straight Herefords, and the partnership cattle were branded with a "shovel" brand on the right rib. Bruce's younger brother, Knight, had a few calves, which Knight wanted branded with his own brand. The day before the branding was to take place, Knight and Bruce's hired hand, Gary, were roping these calves to tie feedsack string around their necks so they could get the proper brand the next day. Some of the little critters were giving the ropers a hard time when it came to allowing themselves to be caught. Gary took in after one calf going pretty fast, and his horse stumbled. Gary fell off, and the loop of the lariat settled around his neck as the horse got up. The horse proceeded to run away, and Gary was dragged to death in the process. The whole event put quite a pall on branding season that year. He was a young married man who left a young widow and infant child.
Click to expand...

Chalk another reason up for my 4 wheeler, it has never run off on me. :wink:

That was a terrible thing Soap, we never know do we?
 
Hi all! My name is Kerry Moncur; I am the Marketing Manager for Z-Tags here in Phoenix. I thought maybe I would chime in regarding the issues with tag loss in calves, especially after this last winter. We can perfect the tag, but we can't control the animal or the environment it will be used in. However, there are a few tips that have helped our customers who tag their calves early keep the tags in the ear where they belong.

First, always remember to pull the critter's ear so the tissue is taut. This will ensure the tag makes a proper incision through the tissue and doesn't tear it. Imagine trying to put a tag through a bread sack and you'll see the importance of keeping the ear taut.

Second, when placing the tag in the ear, keep it between the arteries and on the inner 1/3 of the ear.

Third, if a tag falls out, avoid the temptation to reuse the original hole. Reinsert a new tag into a new hole.

Below is a tagging tip card you can use for reference when tagging either your calves or adults.

Finally, if you are still having problems, feel free to contact the Z-Tag customer service team at 800-511-4744. You can also contact me directly at 602-664-1286.

NewZTagRetentionTips_PO_03-2285copy.jpg
 
Nice to see you post here and give us some tips. I also use Z-Tags and they do see to hang around as long as any and longer then most.I do like the tool with the swing away pin. :-) We tend not to have them as close to the ear as maybe we should as in Canada we also put in a RFID button close in to the head.
 
Well I used The large Y-Tex tags on my heifers last year they have all stayed in but they are curling up so you have a hard time reading the numbers. I have new Z-Tags made up for the replacements this year. Hardest thing on ears tag's is twine and bale feeder's we don't use bale feeder's and unroll bale's seem's to have helped our retention pretty well.
 
gcreekrch said:
That is frostbite. The combination of cold weather and cold plastic froze a little ear.

Think about this a minute......How is a plastic tag going to wear that much off a calf's ear in less than 2 months. If this actually was possible, there would be a constantly weeping raw wound to deal with.
Click to expand...

Good point :D . I just hadn't seen this before with other tags I've used in the past (Ritchey and Y-Tex). I switched to Z-Tags since I like the convenience of not having to keep track of the backs. Like BMR, I also like the tagger much better than the others.

Soapweed, that's a tragic story. I guess you never know what's going to happen. Sad deal for sure.
 
Kerry- thanks for the post...I too am much happier with the Z tags then some of the ones I was using before (was always sticking those little two part posts in my pocket and then poking myself :shock: )...

We never saw the problem as much until this winter--but this was an exceptional winter for wind- cold- and more wind...

I just heard on the Northern Ag Network yesterday where my ex-neighbor Hailey Shipp was reporting that Montana and the Dakotas area lost 70,000+ calves, around 20,000 cows- for about 100,000 head of livestock in all with all the storms and floods this winter and spring....
I guess those calves/cows that just lost a little ear should consider themselves the lucky ones :wink:

A question maybe you can answer....With all the years of push toward NAIS- mandatory ID- have you developed- or are you going to be able to develop a RFID tag that can be written on with a marker so a guy can just use one tag to satisfy both your own numbering system and the RFID requirement...
 

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