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Tagging Calves

Do you tag your baby calves at birth?

  • 2 yr old heifers calves

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • All of them

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • None, could be dangerous

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    0
  • Poll closed .
I feel tagging is needed to track how good you are doing. I try to make sure every year is better than the last but if you can't measure something I feel you cannot make informed decisions and are just running by the seat of your pants.

I know there are people doing a good job going on instinct but I feel I need all the help I can get.
 
I tag them all,the registered get weighed also sometimes that gets a little risky but it needs to be done.I have to do them pretty quick once the are 24 hours old the birth weight is off besides the little farts can really run.
 
We have tagged all our calves a couple of times in the past, but time and labor is keeping us from doing them all now. We tag our 2's calves (which is about 25% of our total this year), and tag any grafts, problems, etc. I watch the older bunches over the summer, and we always pick out some cows that are poor producers, and send them down the road. Tagging might help us do a better job of this, as then we would know the age of the calf also, but we don't even see every calf that is born every day, so it would be tough to get done. Heck, our cows don't even all have tags in them, but we do year brand, so know the age.

We'll see what ID does to our operation. We could get it done, but it would be a big pain.
 
We tag all of ours, but it sure turns into a project. Peach Blossom does most of the tagging, and Saddletramp serves as bodyguard. They just sneak through the newborns on their horses, and as my tophand wife tags, Saddletramp on a good horse keeps the cow away until the tag is in place.

On Friday, the three of us spent most of the afternoon sorting pairs. We gathered a bunch of 280 cows and their calves, and sorted out all the red cows, all the red calves, and all the older selling cows along with their respective mates. The job would be very difficult, if not impossible, without corresponding ear tags. When we were done, we had just over a hundred pairs cut out, which shaped up about 180 black and black baldy cows with black calves. They really looked nice for a while. A bit of misfortune came our way, and last night a snap on a gate lever malfunctioned and both bunches got back together. :cry: :? :( :x :roll: :wink:

Anyway, we all like to ride and it's a good thing, because we get to do the whole project over tomorrow. I want to get them grouped properly before turning bulls out. Before we get all of our spring sorting done, most of the calves are sexed and sorted for color before going to summer pasture. Then in the fall, we can precondition calves before weaning in the proper order in which they will be selling. Tags sure help with all of our messing around.
 
Hey BMR............You just gotta stand up to them black cows and show 'em whose the real boss..............don't let them bluff you..........never back off when you go to do a job :shock: :?










PS- They say ribs heal fast, broken noses add character, and a broke leg or arm should only slow you down a little bit so remember stand your ground :!: :nod: :nod: :nod: :gag: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:
 
We tag all of em, pasture tag as many as we can get our hands on, but if they are big enuff to run, those usually end up waitin until everthang is penned and then they also get a tag.(or when MR Lilly gets the urge to "night tag" which is always Fun. Black cows in the dark :shock: ) I keep records of when a cow has a calf, what it is, bull or heifer and it's color, and if there's any distinguishing marks. Then when it gets it's tag, I pair them with mama after they are turned out. Their numbers aren't the same, but in the end still have a record of everthang.
 
I tag and weigh each calf at birth. Tags are sure nice when we sort pairs to go to different summer pastures or when sexing calves on their mothers in the fall
 
We tag all our calves at birth........we have to sort for pastures and the tags speed sorting up a lot...... also really help when watching calves for sickness and for treatment records. Our cows (Hereford , Angus & baldies) are handled lots and we don't even think twice about handling calves. If a cow has a personality problem she gets a one-way bus ticket!!!
 
All the calves here are tagged. If born in the morning they have a tag by evening. If born during the night they get a tag in the morning. We keep records on the doctoring we do and then come fall if a calf is poor we can look up their mama by the tag number. Plus we have embryo calves, personal calves, and ranch calves so the tags and the colors help identify those bunches too.
 
cowsense said:
Hey BMR............You just gotta stand up to them black cows and show 'em whose the real boss..............don't let them bluff you..........never back off when you go to do a job :shock: :?










PS- They say ribs heal fast, broken noses add character, and a broke leg or arm should only slow you down a little bit so remember stand your ground :!: :nod: :nod: :nod: :gag: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:
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I have had all of the above plus a few more things. Life is to short to mess with those cows out in the hills. Besides I would have to tag most of my cows to make it worth while. :cowboy:
 
Another thing I do is all commercial calves get white tags purebreds get yellow makes for easier sorting when they go to grass.
 
We tag at birth also. Bulls are casterated with a knife, dehorning paste (if req'd) is applied, and tagged. Steers get a different colour than heifers, with only the mothers number on it, because of course there is no reason for it to have it's own number. The heifer calves tags have 2 numbers, the top (in smaller print) is the mothers number, and the lower is the calf's order of birth, followed by the year letter. So top number might be 23K (mother's number), bottom number 125S for the 125th heifer born in year S. This way we can allways see a little relationship between our cows without going back to 'the book' all the time, I find myself quite often spotting sisters or daughters while I'm making my rounds that I had kinda forgotton about. Works real good until the tag falls out. :roll:
 
We tag are calves at birth. Go thru them a horseback, got a few crazy ones but not to bad. We number the calf tag the same as the cows, makes it easier to pair out. Also we tag the heifers calves with a white tag and the bulls calves with a blue tag. Makes it easier to sort when we wean.About all the neighbors tag their calves with the same color as their cow tags. Easier to spot our calves should we get a mix up.
 
Silver said:
We tag at birth also. Bulls are casterated with a knife, dehorning paste (if req'd) is applied, and tagged. Steers get a different colour than heifers, with only the mothers number on it, because of course there is no reason for it to have it's own number. The heifer calves tags have 2 numbers, the top (in smaller print) is the mothers number, and the lower is the calf's order of birth, followed by the year letter. So top number might be 23K (mother's number), bottom number 125S for the 125th heifer born in year S. This way we can allways see a little relationship between our cows without going back to 'the book' all the time, I find myself quite often spotting sisters or daughters while I'm making my rounds that I had kinda forgotton about. Works real good until the tag falls out. :roll:
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When we used to have a bigger herd, we tagged the cows and got tired of lost tags on cows, so we started branding a 3 digit number on the retained heifers. First digit was the last number of the year they were born and then just consecutive numbers after that. For instance, any retained heifer born in this year would be branded, 600, 601, 602 etc. Had to go to the book to check out kinship, but I can see where letters could be incorperated also. Seemed to work well and we always put it high on the hip as we were using a rib brand. We'd run the cows thru' before calving to give shots anyway, so we'd shear off the area that was branded. Worked better than ear tags as you didn't have to have them looking at you to read their number and they never, ever lost a brand! :shock:

Calves either got a "made on the spot" ear tag with the same number as their mothers or "pre made and numbered at the factory" tags, depending on the year. We tried it both way and there were advantages and disadvatages, to both.

When I sold the cows and we took in share cows, the feller didn't tag and I was worried to death, afraid I'd have some sort of wreck and need numbers. Never happened and never had any real problems. Made for being a better cowboy and watching for pairs and finding sick calves mothers. Of course, we never had any real bad blizzards at that time. I think Taps systyem would be about the best of both as you are going to have more problem with first calvers than older cows, usually.

Taggin' can sure make things work and help when you are pairing up with young children and people who can't tell what a pair is, but we sure got along slick, not tagging also. And besides, kids need to learn how to tell a pair also!

For those who want to do it, more power to them and when I restock with my own larger herd, I'll probably do it again, but it will be with freeze brands on the cows and ear tags on the calves. Kind of interesting to go thru' the calf book and be able to look up at culling time, but I never really used the info in there as much as I thought I would.

It's just another way to be involved with your cattle and that makes all the difference to some as they feel they have more control. And thats sure fine with me! :D
 

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