• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

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 .
We tag, dehorn(paste) and castrate(ring) all of our calves at a few days old. I usually try to do it between about 11 AM and 1 PM. The calves are stretched out, in the sun, snoozing and are easier to grab. :) I have an old fishing vest, with about a hundred pockets in it, that hold all the needed paraphernalia. This leaves me a free hand in which I carry an aluminum baseball bat...just in case momma decides that she doesn't want junior getting a pierced ear! :wink: I also check them for navel infection at this time and hit them with Nuflor if they have it.
We use the mother's number on all the calves. This number is a combination of the "cow family" number and the year the cow was born.
I'll use the one I just came in from pulling a calf out of :mad: as an example.......
Her number is "G74Mp". This means she is a daughter of 74G and born in 2002. The lower case "p" represents her sire and is actually up in the top corner of the tag.
The bull calf, that I just pulled out of her :mad: , will be tagged "M74 d". If it had been a heifer calf, she would be tagged "M74Sd".

There. Now that I've managed to keep myself awake by babbling on and on, it is time to go back out and make sure that the little %$#@*&% is up and sucking!!!! :D
 
Faster horses said:
(with the exception of a few mistakes) :wink:
Click to expand...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who does this. This is the first year that I've went back to the old steel tags, and I decided to tag bulls/steers on the left, heifers on the right. Problem is that I tagged the only bull calf from a different direction and now I have a sexually confused calf out there. :(

I've never let a bellarin' cow bother me. Its when they stop bellarin' that theres usually a problem :lol:

Rod
 
One year, we sold all the steer calves and all the selling heifers. Later that fall, we got in the real nice looking replacement heifers to have them bangs vaccinated by a veterinarian. About a week later, I discovered a nice looking black baldy steer sporting a brand new orange steel bangs tag. I got him in, took out the tag, and hauled him to a local sale barn where he sold as a single. It was a money making deal, because in the two months since we had sold the main end of the steers, the market had come up. The main bunch brought 75 cents per pound, and this single brought 78 cents per pound plus he weighed more than his counterparts. It was still rather embarrassing. :oops: :wink: :-)
 
We have a steer that we are feedin out for the deep freezer in with Lil Lilly's Pen of Commercial heifers....when we bangs vac'd them, the vet almost done the steer too. I seen which one was in the chute and hollered "No wait...he don't need one!!!"
 
When we're preg testing on the community pasture cows someone inevitably will run a big steer or bull up the chute to see if we can catch Ol Doc-- and we usually hear the same thing "boys, y'all shouldn't be doing that" ( Old Georgia boy).....

I use FH's method of steers in the right ear- heifers in the left-- but if we keep getting any more tags we have to put in their ears I may have to get some of those Jersey Lilly type cattle to find the ear room :wink: :???:
 
Yup we tag every calf, heifer in left ear, bull/steer in right, (mistakes DO happen :P ), vaccinate with Alpha 7, if horns found, they get pasted, and band what we want for steers. We use the Polaris Ranger 6-wheeler, a calf hook, and a bucket of cake in the back. Even the growly cows are too busy stuffing their mouths full of cake I throw on the ground after hooking their calves we get the job done and no one gets hurt. Cows see the 6 wheeler and start drooling :wink:

Besides the nasty witches go bye bye.
 
Soapweed said:
One year, we sold all the steer calves and all the selling heifers. Later that fall, we got in the real nice looking replacement heifers to have them bangs vaccinated by a veterinarian. About a week later, I discovered a nice looking black baldy steer sporting a brand new orange steel bangs tag. I got him in, took out the tag, and hauled him to a local sale barn where he sold as a single. It was a money making deal, because in the two months since we had sold the main end of the steers, the market had come up. The main bunch brought 75 cents per pound, and this single brought 78 cents per pound plus he weighed more than his counterparts. It was still rather embarrassing. :oops: :wink: :-)
Click to expand...

Not until now it wasn't. Blabber mouth. :wink:
 
Oldtimer said:
I use FH's method of steers in the right ear- heifers in the left--
Click to expand...

Just out of curiosity, why has everyone picked the steers in the right ear?

I dunno if I should say this or not, but I picked steers in the left ear because when I was going to school, the lads that pierced their right ears were considered to be a little broke back mountainish. Left ear was ok though. I didn't want to chance that tagging the wrong side would result in a bunch of gay PB bulls for sale :lol:

Rod
 
Same reason here Rod- Vets put the bangs tag in the right ear, so tag the heifers in the left....

I think our new mandatory ID tags are also supposed to go in the left ear too, so things might get cluttered...
 
We tag everthang in the right ear(with a white tag with hand written numbers) the first go round, then when heifers get bangs vac'd that lil metal tag aint very big, it'll fit in the same ear with the other tag. Calf tags are taken out and replaced with a orange or yellow tag if they are kept as replacements, and we use the hole that was made by the first tag. There are a few out there tho that are runnin round with tags in their left ears. When ya have help that doesn't realize there's a method to your madness they will sometimes put a tag in the left ear....but no biggie.
 
Tags can last a long time - - - my 16 year old daughter could not believe I have a cow that is older than her.

When I told her the K616 was for 86 and not 96 she did not believe me until she looked at the back of the tag and saw the area code was 317 - - - our area code changed to 765 in 95 and she could not even remember the 317 - - - she thought I was pulling her leg until she ask her mother.

The old girl is so tame and leads the rest when we change pastures has earned her way every year but this year she needs to make a trip.
 
I dont know of any outfits big or small around here that goes by tags or keeps anything on paper. Well except for purebreed outfits.
Guess thats sort of going to change with the new regs.
I still dont understand why you need those tags to remember pairs, etc.
Like I can understand ear marking for ownership on the calf before its branded in the summer.
 
DiamondSCattleCo said:
Oldtimer said:
I use FH's method of steers in the right ear- heifers in the left--
Click to expand...

Just out of curiosity, why has everyone picked the steers in the right ear?

I dunno if I should say this or not, but I picked steers in the left ear because when I was going to school, the lads that pierced their right ears were considered to be a little broke back mountainish. Left ear was ok though. I didn't want to chance that tagging the wrong side would result in a bunch of gay PB bulls for sale :lol:

Rod
Click to expand...


Some veterinarians in this area have threatened to charge more for bangs vaccinations if they had to work around an ear already with a tag. Had nothing to do with BBM, just economics. Plus it simply makes sense.
 
George,

You get many daughter from that old girl?

I think one of the most overlooked but important traits is longevity. And I don't mean the last three years raising Leppy looking Dinks. All the cost is in the first 3 years, so the more good calves she makes after that, the better she has done for you,

PPRM
 
Several of her daughters and grand daughters are either in my herd or in the herd of a neighbor I work with ( several of his best are with me )

I probably should have culled her before as I lost another old girl last year who the vet said just got tired and went to sleep and did not wake up. She had a 6 week old bull on her - - - he slowed down a little but before long just stayed with the herd and robbed several cows and sold with the rest.

It was a shock to me to see the old area code on her as I had kind of forgotten that. At the time people thought the work had ended if they had to change - - - just shows how everyone has to complain about something that in the long run does not matter.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top