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tagging

J

jigs

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 17, 2005
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8,447
Location
KANSAS
curious as to how everyone tags the cows. use the letter for the year, or add in the last digit there are so many ideas, that it is always good to see how others do it. some guys wind up writing a book on the tag,

I go with the year, cow#

cow747 was born in 2007, to cow x47 ...her calf this year would be 947 below that I would put the sire #
 
I put the cows number as the big number and put the calves number and sire in the left and right corners-if we keep the female we tag in the other ear with the calf number being the big one and the cow and sire in the corners. We keep the original tag in. If I get ambitious I number brand the replacement heifers too. The last half of the calves usually don't get a tag till branding because they are calving in the bush-we onl;y see them once in awhile-we don't keep many heifers out of the last half of calving. I got the bright idea to pay Ty and Megan $5 a head to tag the bush calves-they were better ropers than I thought had a few $100 days so had to have a wage rollback lol.
 
first number on her tag being the same as when she was born. her calf gets her number, if it is a heifer we keep, she will then get a new tag when they get bangs vac. then her new tag will start with the year she was born.
 
The calf gets the cow number. If a heifer gets to become a cow, she will get her own number, and her family history is in my computer anyway. We put the year she was born on her cow tag too.

Simple but effective.
 
Four digit number they receive when they are born. First digit is the year and the next three are simply the chronologically order in which they were born. Calves are tattooed with the same number in the other ear.

All records are kept on the computer and in the little red book so it isn't much of an issue matching cows and calves.

We also use a specific color for each year. So all of the calves born in 2009 had a blue tag and the first calf started with number 9001. We don't retag the animals so we use the big tags in the calves. The number they are given as a calf stays with them until they leave the place.
 
Kato said:
The calf gets the cow number. If a heifer gets to become a cow, she will get her own number, and her family history is in my computer anyway. We put the year she was born on her cow tag too.

Simple but effective.
Click to expand...

Same here except........I spend too much time on Ranchers when I have computer time to build a cow inventory. :oops: :D

We have hisnhers books so everything is written down twice, the right way and mine. :wink:
 
I tag my replacement heifers with the year number then a dash then her number. If I keep any reolacements from last years crop I will start with 9-1 then go on. I use the cows number on calves with a smaller number above in rotation as the calves were born. I only use two color tags orange and yellow, It seems printing on these colors are the most easy to read. On replacement heifers I switch the color each year. I keep cow records, and cow/calf records on the computer, and also have them on a card file. In the past I kept weaning weights, adjusted weaning weights, and other information as well. These have been somewhat helpful in culling and heifer selection, but eyeballing is often used as well.

I am thinking this may be my last year to run cows. I enjoy feeding and caring for them when the weather is like it has been the last week or so, but is getting to be to much for me when it is bad.
 
I am thinking this may be my last year to run cows. I enjoy feeding and caring for them when the weather is like it has been the last week or so, but is getting to be to much for me when it is bad.
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You aren't alone Clarencen. I think many older ranchers are having
this same thought. It's different when you have some young person coming up that is intersted and there to help. (Example=Soapweed and
Kosmo Kid). That would keep you interested and going. We don't have that.

As for eartags, we put the cows number in when tagging as calves and
put the heifers tags in the left ear, steer (bull) tags in the right ear.Then
when we bangs vaccinate the heifers get new tags in the left ear,
with the year they are born first, the first tag for a heifer born in '09 would be 901. Simple--because we think simple. The rest I keep in a notebook, or on the computer.
 
Heifer calves: This year the first heifer calf will be 1W where 1 is the order of birth and W is the year. Above that in smaller writing is the cows number. In the other ear they get a metal tag and I make sure the numbers are noted in the calving book in case in the future the plastic tag goes missing I can cross reference and put the proper tag back in, usually at preg testing time.
Steer calves: get the cows number.

I like to use the Allflex black marker to make up tags, it dries in a few seconds so you can make tags up on the spot.
 
Sence I've got on rancher and have all these new friends, I'm figerin on cuttin all the tags off the next time we gather them.lol!no, seriously, I only have 50 or so taged out of almost 100. I'm around them almost everyday and have a cell phone pic of them all. Its got the date when they were born and my wife or youngins load it on the home computer. Sence I got this blackberry, I can take better pics. We brand our cattle mainly to idenify if stolein. My bulls are registered cracker as well as a scaterin of cows. That don't mean much to me because cattle are not selectively bred. It perty much like when the spanish dumped them off the ship survival of the fittest. In cracker talk, root hog or die poor.
 
Calves get the cows tag. Orange for bull calves, white for heifer calves. All the heifers get a tatto in order of birth along with the year letter. So the first calf this year will be 1X. Steers get a RFID tag.

When we keep a replacement, she simply gets whatever # is not in use by another cow and her calf tag will come out. I reuse numbers, and tags. Everything is crossreferenced on paper and in the computer. When we buy a cow, same thing, except I will take note of her RFID tag and put it into my records, along with any other info I have on her. The only other thing on the tag is our brand at the top. Need that for the community pasture, and it is handy if a cow decides to go visit the neighbours.

I don't worry about putting the birth date, dam, sire or anything else on the tag. If I need to know anything about the cow, I can easily look it up on the computer or in my herd book.
 
All of our calves here get the cows number, heifers in the left ear and bulls in the right ear. When we pre-condition we EID all of the calves. Any heifers kept from the seed stock will get a new number and will be traced by her new FID and her EID. I am a big fan of year branding heifers. My inlaws freeze brand the replacements heifers with their new number so that they have a permanent ID.
 
The big number is chronological order with the cow's tag number vertical on the one edge of the tag. The birth date goes on the back of the tag. Yellow for steer calves and green for heifers. Easy sorting at a glance at weaning or sale time.
 
Cows have an RFID in the left ear, and a floppy in the right ear (from birth). We AI all of our first calf heifers and they each get a steel bangs tag with a sequential number in it in the right ear. Each replacement heifer also gets a DNA plug pulled from the left ear when they are chosen to enter the cowherd (same time we brand them on the right hip).

Calves are tagged in the order they go through the chute when we first process. RFID in the left ear, White Ztag in the right ear starting with the year and then sequential. Eg: 901 was the first calf up the chute in 2009, then 902,etc. DNA and records of breeding groups sorts out parents after the fact.
 
jigs said:
curious as to how everyone tags the cows. use the letter for the year, or add in the last digit there are so many ideas, that it is always good to see how others do it. some guys wind up writing a book on the tag,

I go with the year, cow#

cow747 was born in 2007, to cow x47 ...her calf this year would be 947 below that I would put the sire #
Click to expand...

Nice question Jiggs.

Has anyone ever thought about improving tag retention?
This is a great article on how to improve RFID tag retention, it gives some great tips, some you might not have thought about... worth reading.

http://livestock-id.blogspot.com/2010/06/how-to-improve-rfid-ear-tag-retention.html
 
livestock-id said:
jigs said:
curious as to how everyone tags the cows. use the letter for the year, or add in the last digit there are so many ideas, that it is always good to see how others do it. some guys wind up writing a book on the tag,

I go with the year, cow#

cow747 was born in 2007, to cow x47 ...her calf this year would be 947 below that I would put the sire #
Click to expand...

Nice question Jiggs.

Has anyone ever thought about improving tag retention?
This is a great article on how to improve RFID tag retention, it gives some great tips, some you might not have thought about... worth reading.

http://livestock-id.blogspot.com/2010/06/how-to-improve-rfid-ear-tag-retention.html
Click to expand...

The picture shown on this site does not show best placement for retention of RFID tags. In my experience anyway.
 
As much as I hate trying to read 4 digit tags, on the registered cows I feel the cow family is so important I devised this system.

First number- year born, next two numbers identify cow families 00 to 99, last number is year her mother was born. Example 6882 is an '06 cow from the 88 family, I know her mother was 288? Her this years calf would be 0886. (Read 0-88-6)For most purposes I still just call the cows by the first 3 digits ie. Cow 688 had a bull calf this morning.

I know this line decends from the '89 foundation cow 988E by Baldridge Oscar. ( Foundation cows got a letter for where they came from because I didn't care who or how old the dam was.)

Bulls get tagged in the right ear, heifers in the left to leave room for the bangs tatoo in the right. I also use a different color for the heifers and bulls then switch to two new colors mid-calving season so that later when picking replacements and you get down to the last cuts, If I have 2 yellows and three greens I know the greens are 30 to 40 days younger and ship the older calves. I code the sire up in the neck of the tag, I generally put the date on back when they are born but don't really worry about the exact date, its just nice to be able to flip the tag if I have their head caught.

Over time some families will die out and certain cows will dominate the herd. Today all the cows can be traced to just 16 of the original cows, in fact over one third of the current cows trace to just 2 cows, the 37's and the 88's.

Its getting late and this is too long, I will try to come back later and explain how I got around too many replacement heifers with the same number. @
 
The problem comes up when you get 3 maternal sisters in the herd say 1889, 2889,6889, plus third generation cows 0882,8886, and 0882's daughter 4880. Now suppose in 2009 four of these cows have good heifer calves. 9881, 9886, 9888,and 9884, no problem! until these 4 heifers calve, then you have 4 calves with the number 1889 plus the 10 year old cow

The rule is only one replacement heifer can carry the family number into the replacements per year, and I start looking for unused numbers and reasons for certain heifers to start their own branch of the family. (maybe 2 of the heifers are sired by a new A.I. sire I have high hopes for.)In the case above the 10 year old cow was a proven bull mother but had no other offspring in the herd so I changed her tag to 1669 and her heifer to 9661 and they became the "66 branch of the "88's". (66 looks kind of like 88) So the 2 heifers by the new bull become "9868 & 9444" (44 is half of 88) Doesn't mean any thing to anybody else but when I see 88's, 66's.44's,86's and 80's at least I know they all stem from that old Baldridge Oscar X PS Powerplay cow from Ericksons.

By the same "Aud" logic I know 3471,3578,3671,3730,4375' 5775,6370.7473,8473,8775,9473,9573 &9747 all go back to that first 137C heifer bred by Mick Cox in Nebraska. As a side note; around here anyway, there is no better way to give a young cow the " kiss of death" than to change her cow number and ask her to start her own cow family. :mad: The 37's and 88's must have been really strong cows to have overcome that jinx. :lol:

My herd is small enough by the time a cow is 10, I know her well enough not to give her number to a heifer. I have never run this system on more than a hundred cows but I guess if you start with 300 to 500 cows you could change tag colors every 100 cows (x00-x99) and just go with 3 digits on the foundation cows.

At some point it just becomes too complicated and you loose any benefit or ability to be able to link cow families in the pasture at a glance. @[/img]
 

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