Two Ear Tags or One?

[sic 'em reds]

My wife and I run our cows with her uncle and somehow we both ended up using yellow ear tags.

So now it's getting hard to determine whose cows are whose. I was thinking of putting a tag in each ear on my cows and hope later he doesn't decide to do the same.

For those of you that use two tags, do you like it better or not? I have some friends that run in a community pasture and have to use two tags. It sure is easy to tell who the cow is from either side.

Just wasting some time tonight and thought I would run it by you all for comments. Probably better start making up some tags if I am going to do it since we are working everything Saturday. Maybe I'll get some pictures too.

 

[Shelly]

My husband and I used to run our cows with two of his brothers and his Dad. We all used white tags but we used different colored buttons. Us black, brother #1 green, brother #2 blue, and their Dad white. Just an idea you can ponder. Worked for us, well most of us anyways! Some of them complained that they couldn't see the button when the cow was looking at them. I told them that maybe they should learn whose cows were whose. It really wasn't that hard to figure out, but that was just my point of view. I pretty much could tell whose cow it was just by looking at her and not reading the tag.

 

[the_jersey_lilly_2000]

If I were in your situation, with two sets of cattle with the same color tags, I'd put another tag in, just for simplicity sake.

Mr Lilly's dad has a few head that run with ours, Ours have orange tags, his have yellow. Makes it easy to tell who's is what. Even tho I perdy much can tell you which cow is who's just by how she looks. We had several come thru the chute last friday that had lost a tag. I got tags ready to replace.....Mr Lilly asked me..."Are you sure?" LOL "Yeap" after askin me a couple times, and me gettin my paper work out and showin him the discription beside each cow (special markins) I write down any markin on there that is noticeable or that stands out. Bein able to tell, is just simply the fact that I spend way more time out in the pasture observin than he does.

 

[Shelly]

That pretty much goes for me, too, Lilly. I can tell you who a cow is even at quite a fair distance. They all are unique in each of their seperate ways.

 

[Northern Rancher]

They get a big dangle tag with their Mom's number when they are born and an RFID tag in the other ear-they get an RFID tag in the other ear. If we keep them they get a big tag in the RFID ear with their number abnd a hot iron brand that matches it.

 

[the_jersey_lilly_2000]

LOL Shelly......I just read yer post......posted 1 minute apart. Too funny. Least I know that someone else thinks like I do.
Reckon it's a woman thang??? :wink:

 

[Silver]

I would just earmark mine to avoid mistakes down the road. Either that or I would want to be the guy with just one eartag, because the cow with two can end up with only one or none in short order. You can't go wrong with earmarking. Just my thoughts.

 

[Silver]

That pretty much goes for me, too, Lilly. I can tell you who a cow is even at quite a fair distance. They all are unique in each of their seperate ways.

I know lots of mine by site, but there's a couple a hundred or more I could get confused on. I don't trust my memory that much :wink:

 

[IL Rancher]

I run some cows for my grandfather and we go with different colored eartags.. Works okay but what is working better is that my cows look different than his. His are big, bruiser 1500 pound cows that are black while my blacks are a more squat animal with a bit less frame (Strange how the calves wean about the same) or they are red or red baldies... That being said I don't know how much longer this arrangment will last with his health and all but we are freeze branding numbers on the shoulders soon. All replacements are getting it, tired of eartags ripping off, not being able to read them because of hair or whatever..I think RFID buttons and a freeze number is going to be best bet for me...

 

[Denny]

I just brand all of them when were done branding their ALL MINE hahahahahahahaha.

 

[Soapweed]

I just brand all of them when were done branding their ALL MINE hahahahahahahaha.

Saddletramp has some cows, my two sons each have some cows, and my sister runs a few cows with us. We just put the same Spearhead brand on everybody's calves. At the end of the selling season, the value of the calves is prorated so everyone comes out with their fair share. This makes it a lot easier on branding days, and the smaller bunches of calves are not discriminated against at the sale barn. My business associates are trusting souls, and I in turn try my best to handle things so that their trust is justified. This system has worked well for several years.

 

[Hooks]

At the end of the selling season, the value of the calves is prorated so everyone comes out with their fair share. This makes it a lot easier on branding days, and the smaller bunches of calves are not discriminated against at the sale barn.

That's how we handle our program & so far it has worked out pretty good.

It also assures that all parties put in their fair share of the work :wink:

 

[PPRM]

Interesting way of doing it Soap. The reason this would work is that you don't run into inferior sourcing of cattle....Same Bulls, nobody slipping in Saleyard rejects, ect...In short, No Cattle Traders to mess the deal up, LOL...

My comment on the other posts.....Different brands.....We are still fairly young in our partnerships and buy calves at the saleyard. Welll, some come pre-earmarked.....

Sic em.......I assumed you were a Cougar guy. I read your comments and thot, "Hmmmm..Communication" Now am wondering if there isn't some Husky influence in your thinking, Just kidding......Yeah, I would look at a second ear tag of a different color as well as brand differences......

Northern Rancher-----I keep asking the Al-Flex Rep when they will have the reader that you can point at acow from Horseback and get the number, LOL....Oh well, I might need glasses for that as well,

PPRM

 

[sic 'em reds]

PPRM, you had me figured right at being a Coug, I just never have been real fond of anything having to do with the "wet-side" of the state.

I think I'll just stick in another tag. I use the Z tags that I write on and he uses Y-tex that are printed, but it is still hard to tell whose black cow it is from a distance when they both got yellow ear tags. I think the next time I order tags, I'll just get another color started.

 

[RRoss]

I just brand all of them when were done branding their ALL MINE hahahahahahahaha.

Saddletramp has some cows, my two sons each have some cows, and my sister runs a few cows with us. We just put the same Spearhead brand on everybody's calves. At the end of the selling season, the value of the calves is prorated so everyone comes out with their fair share. This makes it a lot easier on branding days, and the smaller bunches of calves are not discriminated against at the sale barn. My business associates are trusting souls, and I in turn try my best to handle things so that their trust is justified. This system has worked well for several years.

It makes it easier for neighbors as well. One brand instead of five. Eartags are an overused crutch when it comes to ownership.