Ear tags - Tags

[John C]

Poor old Rodders, was only born on Tuesday and I've just come back into the house from putting two bright yellow tags on him, one in each ear.The poor beggar looks like a Christmas tree.
He was pretty easy to catch and tag but we have a much sterner task ahead.
Somehow his 12 month old full brother has managed to get rid of both of his. He hasn't ripped them out , because there are nice neat round holes where they should be. We will actually be able to use the same holes again when we retag him. It is however, going to be quite a tough job getting up close and personal with him.
The tags are Cox tags, I'm sure we fitted them properly , has anyone else had this experience with this make?
The worrying thing is that we have just used the same batch of tags on Rodney.

[Rob R]

We found the retention with Cox tagspretty good, much better than Ritchey, but then I've recently found out that Shearwell will replace (their own) lost tags for free, so thinking of changing again. And last year we had a tag made (in a hurry) by Agriflex, service was fantastic, price good & tags which seem to stay in, so I don't know which way to go.

[Woodmagic]

I wondered if you realised there are two sizes of yellow tags, you should be using the smaller, which some firms refer to as Dexter tags. Personally I use the very small metal tag, which is allowed in one ear, and only use the yellow one in the second ear, and like many, I don’t insert the yellow one until the calf is close to weaning, or is sold off the place, whichever is the earlier. Incorrect I know, but I am waiting to be challenged on this one, I see some Scottish farmers are fighting it after one or two serious accidents with their dams.

[Sylvia]

Eartags ..... arrrgh! I hate them. We use Fearings. Started off with smaller primary plastic tag and small round plastic secondary. Significant losses. Kept to the smaller plastic primary and changed to metal secondary. Still get losses. Some come out leaving hole, some rip ear. But the cows are nothing to what happens to the lambs which have to be identified before they come out of their lambing pens if they are to be correctly identified for registration later. Even the small round plastic tags are too big for their little ears, I'm now using very light open ended tags but it is a miracle if they stay in.

If cats and dogs had to be identified with ear tags there would be a national outcry at the amount of damage and problems they cause. I thought long and hard a couple of years ago to try and think of an alternative, visible, means of identifying stock but couldn't. The alpacas are micro chipped, but that is no good for instant recognition in the field, the animal has to be caught to run a scanner over it.

I hate ear tags.

[John C]

We use what the company called their medium sized tags along with the yellow plastic round stud type.
He lost them at about 8 months of age.

[Rob R]

The alpacas are micro chipped, but that is no good for instant recognition in the field, the animal has to be caught to run a scanner over it.

Neither are eartags with our hairy lugs :D

[Broomcroft]

We're now using Tags4U which we buy online. We chose them because they are very rubbery/flexible, so I hope may stay in a bit better. Prices are good in a run, same as anyone else for replacements.

[John C]

I'm stuck with this brand because I had to buy and couldn't borrow an applicator.

[Linhill]

We use Cox Zee Tags which are quite flexible. Have not needed to replace as many since using these. We tend to just put in the button tag for ID purposes at a couple of days old.( Little black calves can look very similar when you have three or four together!) Putting in the medium size tag is put off for as long as possible , which is not correct i know but they have such little ears.

[Rob R]

I'm stuck with this brand because I had to buy and couldn't borrow an applicator.

We have a replacement pin for the applicator to change it from Ritchey to Cox, the pin costs ~£4 but if they have a pin any new supplier should give you one in order to get your business.

[monica waltho]

We always used to use Ketchum,their smalllest plastic one and the metal tag but they changed them without telling us and they were much larger.
We had alot of trouble with these even though we didnt put them in until they were weaned. We have since changed to Fearings whose plastic primary tags are a much better size but I find the metal ones quite a bit larger but so far they havent seemed to cause any problems and they should be easy to read if I have to reorder for the yellow ones.


Monica

[ann]

I have just changed
to Ketchum as I was losing almost 50% of the Fearling tags, just breaking not tearing ears,and all they said when I complained was that at least the ears where not torn, however as some of the tags where no older than 1yr I did not find this an acceptable excuse.

I use a metal tag in one ear and have never liked the fearlings metal tags

The ketchum approved plastic primary tags are no bigger than the fearlings and they gave me a free applicator for the plastic tags and a new anvil for my metal tag applicator. So I hope these last longer

[Mark Bowles]

I have to say that i have struggled with Fearing tags and the poor retention. They seem to break too easy,we have had no ripped ears at all.
I should imagine thats where they make their money, on replacement tags.
Mark

[Broomcroft]

I have to say that i have struggled with Fearing tags and the poor retention. They seem to break too easy, we have had no ripped ears at all.

That's interesting...I wonder whether the Fearing tags are designed to break before tearing the ears? I used be involved in the design of products where we would deliberately weaken them so they gave a warning that they were going to break rather than suddenly going bang wallop and causing other damage.

Also, as Ann said also, they told her "at least the ears weren't torn" when she complained about broken tags. It was probably a serious comment.

[Duncan MacIntyre]

I have used Fearing tags since the plastic ones became compulsory, and use the round button one as the secondary and the "Dexter" size large one. I only have a small number of cattle so not really of much signifcance statistically. I have had one break, caught in rylock fencing I think even though the heifer could not possibly have had her head through - must have caught whilst she was grazing against the fence, and the broken bit was lying on the other side when I found it. The instructions for most tags emphasise putting the female part in the inside of the ear so that the smoother male part is on the outside, less likely to catch on things, and I think this is true. I notice very few commercial farmers take the trouble to put them in the right way round, in fact on many farms there are more the wrong way than the right way.

I have one steer with torn ear, and it was entirely my fault for being too casual about restraint when putting it in, and he was not as quiet as I thought - one jerk of the head and the ear was torn, tag closed and no use. A rep for Shearwell tags told me recently that the first question a lot of farmers in another EU country ask is "can the two parts be pulled apart?" If the answer is no then they are not interested.

As I go amongst all sorts of cattle as a vet I am astonished at the number of cattle sporting the "Dexter" tags, totally ignorant of the fact that the special size was hard fought for by a team from the Dexter Cattle Society Council when the consultations were going on prior to changes in mid 90's.

Duncan