Jake said:
Y-tex makes a gel that soaks into the tag and I have yet to see it every fade. Our cows all get engraved ritchie tags though, they are by far my favorite.
Ya---Y-tex--or somebody---used to make an ink that kinda melted in and 'bonded'----if you were short a tag, made a mistake and realized it almost instantly---you couldn't even get it all off with a pocketknife, actually cutting into the tag. I've picked these up off ground that were lost 20+ yrs ago and still very readible. But---they were on the ground.
On colors, we try to pick one the guys across the fence don't have---'hot pink' not being very manly, we got it to ourselves. Last few yrs, we've went back to 'boc loc' brisket tags, put them in the repl @ preg check--leave the ear tags in, that's their mother's number and kinda helps.