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how to identify age of cows

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tlakota

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I have some cows that i bought as broken mouth cows last year. Im just curious what their age is. Is there a way to tell how old they are on their tattoo. A vet showed me a couple years ago that you can shine a flashlight through their ear and usually see the numbers? Is that how you can tell?
How do they mark them at the salebarn? I always just thought they looked at their mouth and could tell. Or do they look at the tatoos somehow too?
 
We tattooed using the letter system. Each letter corresponded with a year. 2 year olds calving for the first time this year would be S's. I have a cow who is a D, she is 14 years old. Letters that aren't used in this system are I, O, Q, and maybe U or V. I hope this is making sense to you, because what I'm reading that I'm writing sure isn't clear. I'm not very good at putting into words what I mean.
 
You are talking Bangs vaccination tag from what I understand- and yes you should be able to go to USDA and find out when, where, and by who they were vaccinated- which would have to be before they were a year old- if they will.....Good luck tackling the bureaucracy BS....

Broken mouths are usually any cow with a missing tooth- which depending on area they came from could mean about anything between 4-5 years old to 14-15 + :roll:
 
i thought there was a way to tell if you have them in the chute....shine a flashlight through the ear and the first number of the tattoo is the year they were born or am i wrong?
 
You have no guarantee that whatever tattoo happens to be in the ear is reflective of the cows age. You would have to know the numbering system used by the previous owner. Do they have bangs tags? If they do you can look at it and tell what year they were vaccinated. Since animals older than a year can't be vaccinated you would be able to tell pretty close how old they are. Just looking at the tattoo will tell you nothing unless you know how the cow was numbered.
 
Yanuck said:
U is used, (that's what we're on this year) and I'm 99% sure V is also
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If you're using U, then V isn't used. They say they look too much alike. I remember having cows that were U's, but no V's. We've always used this system, it makes it pretty easy to figure out how old a cow actually is. But this system isn't used by everyone, it's more a purebred thing. Some people don't tag or tattoo at all, makes it a little tougher to guess ages. Now if a cow looks old to me, she is. But like FH says, if they're in good condition and can still raise a calf, why worry about it at all?
 
Yanuck said:
You're right Shelly, V isn't used.... I stand corrected!!
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Well, you and I obviously use the same system, maybe you can explain it to tlakota better than me.
 
If you are using letters what year did you start with?? Is there a universal system in use??
 
Im talking about the bangs tattoo. Isnt it like the first number was the year they were born? So if the first number is a five then the cow was either born in 95 or 2005.
 
If they are bangsed you shouldn't need a flashlight to read it. It should show up very well tattooed between the middle ribs of the right ear. With that # the state vet should be able to tell you who was issued that series of numbers and then you should be able to call the vet and he could tell you when he vaccinated them and for who.
 
George said:
If you are using letters what year did you start with?? Is there a universal system in use??
Click to expand...

p 123 http://www.beefimprovement.org/library/06guidelines.pdf

A-1969
B-1970
C-1971
.
.
.
.
.
Z-1990
A-1991
B-1992
C-1993
.
.
.
T-2007
U-2008
W-2009
X-2010
Y-2011
Z-2012
A-2013



The letters I, O, Q, and V are not used.
 
tlakota said:
Im talking about the bangs tattoo. Isnt it like the first number was the year they were born? So if the first number is a five then the cow was either born in 95 or 2005.
Click to expand...

The last number of the bangs tattoo (middle web of the right ear) should represent the year the animal was vaccinated.

http://www.avc-beef.org/AgingCattle-Griffin/AgingCattle-CL712.pdf

"A second method of aging cattle involves reading the brucellosis tattoo in the right ear of female cattle. The tattoo (if legible) will reveal the year that the cow was a weaned calf and brucellosis vaccinated. The first digit of the tattoo represents the quarter of the year that the animal was vaccinated. For example, a two would mean the animal was brucellosis vaccinated in April, May or June. The middle portion of the tattoo is a shield. The last number is the year the animal was vaccinated. For example, a 7 would mean the animal was vaccinated in 1997, as a calf. The calf could have been born in 1996 or during 1997. Brucellosis tags do not reveal the year of vaccination."
 
George said:
If you are using letters what year did you start with?? Is there a universal system in use??
Click to expand...

George,
I don't know when they started to use the letter system, but I've been around long enough to have "U' cows, mind you they were really old and I was really young :wink: I guess it is perhaps used more in the purebred thing as Shelly said,but anyone could use it. If you were to look at a registration paper, that letter that corresponds with the year the animal was born should be on it, we name all our bulls with names that start with the same letter as that years tattoo letter. Calves born in 2008 tattoes would have U, 2007 are T's, 2006 are S's and so forth. The letters I,O,Q and V are not used, once you get to Z you just start all over again at A, when we freeze brand we also put the letter as well as the number on the hip, makes it easy to read if tags are lost, and our customers really like it also.
Hope that explains it?
 
txag: You are right on the money on the tatoo aging system. We use it to tell when a cow loses a tag. It will really surprise you sometimes how old some of them get and are still productive. Unless it is unusually dry I don't cull until they are slowing down a bit production wise.
 
A hot iron year brand on the cow's shoulder makes it easy to know what year they were born. I have seen ranches that try to "cheat" the system, and put the year brand on when the heifer is two years old. In other words, a few years down the line, a buyer looking at the year brand would think the cow was two years younger than she actually is.
 

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