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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 .
DiamondSCattleCo said:
Oldtimer said:
I use FH's method of steers in the right ear- heifers in the left--
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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
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But for all you guys that raise rough stock the right ear is okay.
 
I have to admit that the poll results kind of surprise me. I didn't expect a ratio of over ten to one that tagged over other options. Around this area I would say that half tag and half don't. All that I know of tag their 2's calves, but not all of them tag everything. I think the later ranchers around here calve, the less likely they are to tag them all at birth. I suppose that if we kept tagging when our cows were 3's, 4's, and so on that they would be better about it, but you are taking your life into your own hands in a lot of cases if you mess with a newborn calf on an old cow around here. A guy that worked for us once, worked on a ranch that ran brahma cross cows. He told me that if you messed with the newborn calves very much, that the cow might never come back to her calf again. Natures way I suppose. Anybody know about this?

Now that I know most of you tag, do you do anything with the information other than cow to calf ID? Feedlot performance, carcass data, etc?
 
Tap said:
1) He told me that if you messed with the newborn calves very much, that the cow might never come back to her calf again. Natures way I suppose. Anybody know about this?

2) Now that I know most of you tag, do you do anything with the information other than cow to calf ID? Feedlot performance, carcass data, etc?
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1) I find it hard to believe. If it was true, then they had a whole whack of cows that should have been culled. Sometimes when a heifer of any breed has JUST dropped their calves, if you goof with the calf it'll occasionally chase the heifer away and she may not come back.

2) Weaning performance, feedlot performance, carcass data, injections, calf and cow sickness history, birthing performance. I cull based on feedlot performance. If a cow consistently delivers calves in the bottom side of my feedlot performance, she leaves. I don't get too panicked on weaning performance unless the cow is well off the average. If a cow consistently delivers calves that need treating for one illness or another (including basic scours), she leaves. Or if she's always sick, she gets the hoof.

Rod
 
Ours are tagged at birth. Castrated, vitamin ade as well. We write the cow's number on the tag, and the birthdate of the calf underneath it. That way, when they go through the chute for their pasture turnout vaccinations, we can put the RFID tags in without having to look up birthdays in the book.
 
DiamondSCattleCo 2) Weaning performance said:
Just wondering Rod, what do you do with these old cull cows? You can only BSE test so many of them.
Seems kind of pointless. Like unless she is a real old swingbag thats giving you lots of troubles your just going to end up keeping her anyways.
Plus if we ever have a market for culls again you are not going to need the ear tag to remember the ones you were doctoring all the time.
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Kato said:
Ours are tagged at birth. Castrated, vitamin ade as well. We write the cow's number on the tag, and the birthdate of the calf underneath it. That way, when they go through the chute for their pasture turnout vaccinations, we can put the RFID tags in without having to look up birthdays in the book.
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As far as those RFID tags are concerned. Isnt that calf born whenever you say it was born? If you say May 1st and it was actually May 10th, who will ever know?
 
All our calves get tagged, but not always right after birth. I'll usually tag a group of them when they come thru the pen. They get a tag in their left ear with a PH# (private herd #) that will eventually be branded on their right hip at weaning. Example: First calf this year gets a 601 PH#, second calve gets a 602 and so on.
 
Kato said:
Ours are tagged at birth. Castrated, vitamin ade as well. We write the cow's number on the tag, and the birthdate of the calf underneath it. That way, when they go through the chute for their pasture turnout vaccinations, we can put the RFID tags in without having to look up birthdays in the book.
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The lesser half decided on a similar plan last year where he'd put the birthdate of each calf on the eartags. It seems to have been a good one because there were a handful of lots in addition to ours that did the same thing the day we sold at the sale barn. And we all seemed to do just a bit better because of it. It was considered a selling point.
 
RoperAB said:
Just wondering Rod, what do you do with these old cull cows? You can only BSE test so many of them.
Seems kind of pointless. Like unless she is a real old swingbag thats giving you lots of troubles your just going to end up keeping her anyways.
Plus if we ever have a market for culls again you are not going to need the ear tag to remember the ones you were doctoring all the time.
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You're right, since the border closed to cull markets, my performance culling has went downhill. I still cull the terrible performers (had a couple year whose calves only did 1.25 lbs from weaning to 800 lbs. Totally unacceptable when my herd average was a little over 3 lbs/day). So they left and I got my $200. Swingbags and oldtimers leave of course, and I collect my $150.

But as far as tagging goes, I'm _ok_ with remembering which calf goes with which cow, but not perfect. So if I have a sick calf on pasture and need to pull him out, if his cow isn't around or doesn't come running, I radio into the house, get the cows number, cut her out of the herd and run them back into the yard.

I've worked ranches where they didn't tag, and I hated it. The owners son or wife would come in and say "Theres a sick cow out there that needs treating". I'd ask which one? Oh, one of the black ones (herd had 400 Black Angus cows).

Rod
 
I know my black cows and usually can figure out which cow it is that has lost her tag, but every once in a while I still am stumped and need to read the tattoo.

I am buying some cheap bred cows now and all of them are getting some kind of ID tag and the calf will match it. If you can't identify your cows as to their calves you will lose more than you need to.

Any cow eating more than they wean deserves to go to town at whatever the price of culls is. Cull cows at 30-40 cents is a lot better than a cow costing $350 for a year with no income. I think most of us got a little slack with our culling, but those that didn't cull anything were very foolish. Some cows actually died and returned nothing to the owners. $100 would have been better than losing her, the BSE test would have been even better still.
 
The guy I run the cows for wants his calves tagged as soon as I can catch them. A couple of years ago I talked him into tagging the steers in the right ear instead of everything in the left. After the first year when we were sexing them to ship he became a firm believer in the system. This year I am tagging the bull calves with a different color tag and sorting them to run apart from the heifers for the summer. Should make for a lot easier shipping time this fall.

My own personal herd I am not tagging at all, and I'm really liking this system. Some of my cows are just a little honky, easy to handle and be around just don't mess with their babys. Besides I'll have my replacements sorted before they come to the corral for weaning. If I have one that is raising a lousy calf I will sort her off into the cull pasture.

I am going to try to switch the whole operation to this system as it will be a lot less time consuming and easier on me. This year I have been tagging since the fifteenth of March with a broken wrist after one old cow flung me over a fence. There for I have become a strong advocate of the not needing to tag system. Besides if a cow is not performing I could always just write her number down if she isn't handy to sort into the cull pasture.

Jason just a different point of view, but that old cow that is only worth three or four hundred dollars is packing a calf that is worth six or seven if you can just get her through, or put the calf on something a little younger that is deserving.
 
cowboyup said:
The guy I run the cows for wants his calves tagged as soon as I can catch them. A couple of years ago I talked him into tagging the steers in the right ear instead of everything in the left. After the first year when we were sexing them to ship he became a firm believer in the system. This year I am tagging the bull calves with a different color tag and sorting them to run apart from the heifers for the summer. Should make for a lot easier shipping time this fall.

My own personal herd I am not tagging at all, and I'm really liking this system. Some of my cows are just a little honky, easy to handle and be around just don't mess with their babys. Besides I'll have my replacements sorted before they come to the corral for weaning. If I have one that is raising a lousy calf I will sort her off into the cull pasture.

I am going to try to switch the whole operation to this system as it will be a lot less time consuming and easier on me. This year I have been tagging since the fifteenth of March with a broken wrist after one old cow flung me over a fence. There for I have become a strong advocate of the not needing to tag system. Besides if a cow is not performing I could always just write her number down if she isn't handy to sort into the cull pasture.

Jason just a different point of view, but that old cow that is only worth three or four hundred dollars is packing a calf that is worth six or seven if you can just get her through, or put the calf on something a little younger that is deserving.
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Oh you big baby! Get out there and tag them calves. Them cows won't hurt you.







Or at least thats what I've been told by father and wife! :wink:

Yeah, right! :shock: :o :lol: :lol:
 
Allright I'm going, I'm going :x

Didn't mean to cry like that , guess i just need to cowboy up :!: :wink:

Good news is I just have a little over a hundred to go. Sweethearts, every one. :D
 
All of our cows except the first calf heifers calve on the open range in pastures between 600 and 1200 acres. These pastures have roads, but if you venture off of them, you will spend the rest of the day repairing tires.

We also have quite a number of cows that will eat your lunch if given half a chance. To tag these would require a man on horse back to rope them and deal with the cow. One serious injury, or a possible fatality makes us work the calves in corrals which are built for the purpose.

Sorting steer and heifers is easy. In early September, two guys on horses sort the pairs in the pastures. They can to the whole bunch - 750 or so in a couple of days. This saves one trip down the sorting alley and we can ship heifers and steers on different days if we need to.

I might add that the one reason we would like tags is to make it easier to follow up on a sick calf. Calving on the prairie seems to avoid most sick problems.

We tag all of our cows and the guys can usually find a particular calf in a few minutes even though they are mostly all black. They keep the calving herds at about 75 head so they really watch pasture by pasture.
 
Tap wrote:
1) He told me that if you messed with the newborn calves very much, that the cow might never come back to her calf again. Natures way I suppose. Anybody know about this?

2) Now that I know most of you tag, do you do anything with the information other than cow to calf ID? Feedlot performance, carcass data, etc?

Rod Wrote:
1) I find it hard to believe. If it was true, then they had a whole whack of cows that should have been culled. Sometimes when a heifer of any breed has JUST dropped their calves, if you goof with the calf it'll occasionally chase the heifer away and she may not come back.
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The feller that told me about the brahma's actually witnessed this happening to the calves. He said they just could not tag these calves or they would have a bunch of leppies. He was not the kind to fib about anything. These cattle were not extremely wild either, but just had different mothering ideas. The thing he liked best about these cows was that when you moved them, they gathered up their calves and went somewhere as pairs. I don't doubt what he said to be fact whatsoever.
 
Sounds like you have a good system Cowpuncher. Does weather bother you much during calving in your country? Or do you have some canyons or some kind of cover?
 
Tap said:
The thing he liked best about these cows was that when you moved them, they gathered up their calves and went somewhere as pairs. I don't doubt what he said to be fact whatsoever.
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That is the only thing about my longhorn and longhorn crosses I don't like as well. When you try to split them at the gate, them ol' cows have got their calf at their flank and are headed out the gate. About like trying to split off colts from mares. I never seen any other breeds we've had around here, do this as consistently.

Glads to see you finally tuffened up, cowboyup! :wink:
 
Tag for the same reason , moving to dif pastures etc. Most calves same color therefore easier to monitor for heath problems. Some of those old girls stay pretty close to those calves for a couple of days. But they have to go for food and water eventually :wink: My GENTAL Limo cows would never think I was trying to hurt there little babies :o YEA RIGHT :lol: :lol:
 

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