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cattle numbering systems

T

TN cowpoke

Member
Joined
May 10, 2006
Messages
19
Location
southern middle TN
Hello fellow ranchers, I visit this wonderful site daily but have posted only a time or two. I was wondering what systems some of you guys and gals use to number your cows and calves for record keeping purposes. I have just started using the BEEF fIRM software from the University of Tennessee and need to come up with a good system. Up until now I have just been numbering the calves with the same number as their mothers, but that will not work too good with my new software program. I think I have read somewhere that numbering the calves in order of birth followed by the last two digits of the year works pretty good. An example would be 2506 for the 25th calf born in 2006. I am open to any and all suggestions. Thanks in advance! Clay
 
TN cowpoke said:
Hello fellow ranchers, I visit this wonderful site daily but have posted only a time or two. I was wondering what systems some of you guys and gals use to number your cows and calves for record keeping purposes. I have just started using the BEEF fIRM software from the University of Tennessee and need to come up with a good system. Up until now I have just been numbering the calves with the same number as their mothers, but that will not work too good with my new software program. I think I have read somewhere that numbering the calves in order of birth followed by the last two digits of the year works pretty good. An example would be 2506 for the 25th calf born in 2006. I am open to any and all suggestions. Thanks in advance! Clay
Click to expand...

That will work. Along with using the "Letter" designation for the year.

Be sure and use enough "0's" in front of the number so that they will be in numerical order in the binary system.

Example: If you will possibly have over 100 calves start with "001" instead of "1". If you don't, the numbers will not appear in numerical order in your reports.
 
You have a plan to be able to cross reference a calf to it's mother? If not, what is the point of keeping records? Maybe you can use the mother's number and add the year to it for example: 201, cow's number, 2016, calf number.

We use Cow Sense, it's a great program. We tag the calves with their mother's number, so when we get carcass data back it goes back to the cow. The only prob we have is when we have two with the same number, ie 545 old cow (born in 1995) and a 2005 calf kept as a replacement numbered 545. When this happens, we either try to skip the number or I will put a * or a - or some type of symbol after the number on the books so I know which one is the old one and which one is the young one. Hope this helps.
 
The alphabet symbol along with a number works well. Many such systems tie into the Canadian PB tattoo system to provide harmony. 2006's letter is S and numbering is added (S1 or S01 orS001 etc. as your needs dictate). The letters I,O,Q and V are not used to avoid chance of mistakes. Works well but if you are planning on branding with the ID # than a Year # works better (6001 and on as needs dictate). A bit of planning as you are doing will give you a lifetime of accurate cattle records particularily when tied into a good cattle software program!
 
I also use Cowsense software..it's a user friendly program that is now set up so we can use it for EID's. We give the calf the same number as the cow till replacement heifers are verified bred, then they get their own new cow number. Also as mentioned above, make sure you use like a 4 dgit number system for your program...example...we use W0001...the W is for the color of tag...white...the 0's keep the numbers in order..and the 1 is the actual number on the cow tag. Now we have our cow tags all preprinted without the W and the 0's makes it easier for the guys to read., so actually I'm the only one that has to enter the W0001 in the computer. Confused? :? Now that all our cows are EID'd, we just scan em in the chute and the laptop reads all their history...so even if they lose a eartag...the EID will tell you which cow it was...Now if they lose an EID tag..hopefully you'll still have either the bangs number or the eartag..look it up and walla! Still have the right cow. It werks fer me...lol
 
I use the year number and a letter, ie. 71T, 72T, etc. Then I just keep track in my herd pocketbook until I can get it in my computer program. Just reference the cow number to the calf number. Cow 32N-calf 66S. I try to keep it as simple as I can.
 
if you don't have the cow number on the calf, sure makes it hard to pair up or know what calf belongs to what cow out in the pasture.
add a number or letter to the cows number for the year if you need a different number for the calf.
I haven't been using the letters but have had the problem with old cow and young cow with the same number and sometimes it isn't as obvious to which one is 10 years older than the other one than you might think.
will sure make life a lot simpler than numbering the calves in birth order if the cow number is at least part of what is on the calf tag.
just my 2 bits!!
 
sandhiller said:
if you don't have the cow number on the calf, sure makes it hard to pair up or know what calf belongs to what cow out in the pasture.
add a number or letter to the cows number for the year if you need a different number for the calf.
I haven't been using the letters but have had the problem with old cow and young cow with the same number and sometimes it isn't as obvious to which one is 10 years older than the other one than you might think.
will sure make life a lot simpler than numbering the calves in birth order if the cow number is at least part of what is on the calf tag.
just my 2 bits!!
Click to expand...

You are right, sandhiller. The calf needs to have the same number as the cow for tags to be convenient. It is time consuming and a royal pain to have to look in a book, to cross reference what cow goes to what calf, if they don't have identical numbers.
 
sandhiller said:
if you don't have the cow number on the calf, sure makes it hard to pair up or know what calf belongs to what cow out in the pasture.
add a number or letter to the cows number for the year if you need a different number for the calf.
I haven't been using the letters but have had the problem with old cow and young cow with the same number and sometimes it isn't as obvious to which one is 10 years older than the other one than you might think.
will sure make life a lot simpler than numbering the calves in birth order if the cow number is at least part of what is on the calf tag.
just my 2 bits!!
Click to expand...


I just add a Y above the number on the calf that belongs to the younger cow seems to work fine.All my commercial cows run in 2 pastures as the calves are born they all get white tags.All the registered cows are split up in 4 smaller pastures I tag their calves with yellow tags makes the biggest sort alot easier.On the cows all registered cows number start with a D so when sorting for pasture the D cows go into a pen for the yellow tagged calves.This system works good for me.
 
We don't number calves unless they are out of 1st calf heifers.

We calf out in the prairie and the chance of someone getting hurt isn't worth it. They could die or freeze before anyone found them.

Yesterday, the guys went out into a pasture full of mixed calves and within an hour brought the cows with steer calves in for vaccinations. An hour later the heifers came in. Were about 110 pairs. The cows were angus and don't work as well as our crossbred cows for some reason. They aren't as protective.

We number our replacements with the year and a sequence number. but we put tags in both ears since a lot of them get lost.

If they ever come up with a MID program, we will tag the calves when we vaccinate them in the fall, the cows when they are preg-checked.

We don't keep paper records, but if a cow has a calf that doesn't measure up, off to town she goes.
 
sandhiller said:
if you don't have the cow number on the calf, sure makes it hard to pair up or know what calf belongs to what cow out in the pasture.
add a number or letter to the cows number for the year if you need a different number for the calf.
I haven't been using the letters but have had the problem with old cow and young cow with the same number and sometimes it isn't as obvious to which one is 10 years older than the other one than you might think.
will sure make life a lot simpler than numbering the calves in birth order if the cow number is at least part of what is on the calf tag.
just my 2 bits!!
Click to expand...


hmmmm, we sort in a big pasture and have no trouble pairing them out. You just need to pay attention. We have sorted neighbors with tags matching cows and it was no faster.
 

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