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Tagging System for Purebreds

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PureCountry

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Hey all, what do some of you do to tag your replacement heifers? I started tagging them the same as their Momma, so my old 3N cow for instance, all her heifer calves we kept got a 3S, 3T, 3U, etc.

The problem is when those daughters have calves, if they have heifers that you keep as well, you end up in the same year having multiple heifers tagged 3Z or whatever the year letter is.

My folks used to just tag calves in the order they were born, and my Dad says this is exactly why. He couldn't figure another system to avoid the problem I described above.

I know some people number them in order of birth of the cow family. Like the matriarch cow might be:
Lady Ann 1st
Her first calf would be:
Lady Ann 2nd
Third calf:
Lady Ann 3rd
When Lady Ann 2nd has her first calf, if she calves before her Momma, her calf becomes:
Lady Ann 4th
Then Lady Ann 1st calves let's say a week later, her calf becomes:
Lady Ann 5th.

These then get tagged with that number and their appropriate year letter. Jim Lents and other linebreeders seem to favor this method but they also have cow families that are now at Margaret 126th and that sort of thing.

Thoughts? Suggestions?
 
nothing to do with tagging but did see this and thought of you




http://alberta.kijiji.ca/c-cars-vehicles-heavy-equipment-farming-equipment-Mix-Your-Own-Feed-Gehl-Mix-Mill-For-Sale-W0QQAdIdZ564273605
 
On the calf tag we put Bulls Intials on left top, cows number on right top, and below on big part calf's Tattoo number and letter. The heifer always gets the mothers name and we would go bonkers trying to do it your way. Too many to know if it is first or sixth.

CA
 
We tag in order using the number of the year. On the commercials we will start at 4001 this year. My purebreds this year will start at 401. I do not like the letter system as I can never remember what year the dang cow is from. This way all my 5000 cows are 9 years old. We use color to separate the breed types. Green for PB, White for AN and Purple for SMAN. Then the tags are also in sync with the CCIA RFID.
When we select breeding heifers we have started putting a year brand on the shoulder, our regular brand on the hip. I also tag with a steel tag in sequence as they are AI'ed into the cowherd.
If we had less than 100 cows I would tag 1401, 1402, but the tags are too small for me to get my crappy writing to fit 5 numbers.
 
I freeze brand the year they were born on the heifers. Then use the same number as the cows in the heifers. The year they were born helps me keep them all straight.
 
As calves they get their mothers tag number with the sire listed above when they get their own tags the Registerd cattle all start with a Capital D Then the year. for instance D300 , D301 etc etc.all on yellow tags the commercial get numbers starting where the registered left off on white tags so 302 ,303 etc etc. I list the sire across the top of the tag the dam in the middle and their number across the bottom. Every 10 years we may get some over lap but not real often If the registerd cattle ended at D325 ten years ago just start them at D326 this year. Most we keep for heifers is 40 to 60 on a big year. I normally try to base there numbers off the last three numbers on the Bangs tag I have the vet find some that the third to the last number matches the year in question so if all else fails I can read the bangs tag tattoo freeze brand or the ear tag.
 
No purebreds here anymore, but replacement get the mothers number on the top line of the tag ie: 25Y. Bottom line is the calfs birth order number followed by the year letter ie: 124B. If I was in a purebred situation I would do like others and put the bulls initials in a corner I guess. I like the birth order number because it helps establish a cut off when sorting keepers in the fall so I don't end up keeping calves that are too young to stand a good chance of breeding back and eliminates the need to be standing in the sorting pen with the herd book in hand looking confused while folks are waiting on me :D
 
All calves are tagged with their mothers number at birth then assigned their tattoo number later in order of birth. Permanent ID numbers begin with year of birth and now end with the letter code as well to help distinguish from commercial. We have no more than 100 registered cows of a single breed so we use odd numbers for cows for a decade then switch to even and vice versa...no overlap this way but only works if you are small like us.
 
Just use order of birth with letter of year and put momma's number and sire code on bottom of tag.
Other info can be looked up quickly on smart phone if need be,
We now use the name on reg papers the same, but the tatto is included, so that gives you cow family and the individual in the name.
 
Some cow families I want to keep all the females from, so the "same " number system can stack up quickly, and what a pain to get a name that starts with the letter of the year............
 
Ya quite a few Galloway breeders have done that over the years because they only had a few cows. I've had cows that are named Yeti, their dam was Nettie, granddam was Jettie, and so on. Painful when you get some volume of numbers though.

Even more weird for names is when people try to name them all names that start with the year letter. I had some cows we purchased named Right On, Ruckus, Romp and Riddle. Real feminine. :lol:
 
I just name them whatever there mother is for the heifers it's the number that changes .No one gives a rats ass what their name is anyhow. Naming cattle is senseless in real world applications.
 
Names matter to me. In the purebred business when I'm selecting a bull or female I like to research pedigrees. Makes it easier to connect the dots when cow family names are carried on. Just personal preference for me.
 
Our registered herd get the year then the order of birth. First calf of 2013 is 1301 first commercial calf is A01. We also put sire number on top and dam on bottom with calf number in center. Another thing we do is registered calves get a green tag commercial get a white tag. Makes it easier when showing cattle to customers.

Gizmom
 
PureCountry said:
Names matter to me. In the purebred business when I'm selecting a bull or female I like to research pedigrees. Makes it easier to connect the dots when cow family names are carried on. Just personal preference for me.
Click to expand...


I do also any Lacy named cow will go back to the original Lacy cow in my herd I have several different cow family's but the females in those families never change just the number DD Lacy D430 is the mother to DD Lacy D639 even though she's a Bando 9074 daughter on the bull side. If you have good cattle the Ranch Prefix means more than the cows name like,SAV, OCC, TC, SITZ etc etc. whats in a name if she ends up open.
 

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