Ear Tags

[Imissmygirls]

SO far, I have only seen the farm tags discussed ( except for Canada). There is also a national official dairy herd ID system that is small rectangular metal tags with numbers and letters. I know PA numbers start with 23.
Yes, they lose them just like the big tags. You get them replaced.
Jerseys must be tattooed in the ear for official identification, although MReit has been talking to someone about freezebranding too.
I think the Holstein Association has some electronic tags for IDs too.

 

[haviris]

Thank you, you were all very helpful!

My dad has desided he wants to tag his cows and I thought I would see how everyone here does it so I could suggest some kind of system. I think right now he just wants them to be different then the neighbors. He has a shady neighbor he doesn't trust. And now do to someone attempting to take off w/ one of my mom's cows I'm thinking it would be a good idea to tag hers to! Mostly to distingish them from neighbors.

 

[MReit]

Well then tagging is a VERY good idea! I tag by making my own numbers. Since I'm starting my own new herd, I have #1-5. My bull is X1-08. 08 being the year he was born. Since I've seen the tag markers ware off, I've taken the dremmel and engraved the numbers in then colored them in with the black marker( and good thing I did since my bull decided to tackle a dirt pile and is covered in mud!) when my heifers finally calve, I plan to tag them 1a, and 2nd calve 1b...that way I always know who their mom was (by the # infront of the letter) And I've never seen a cow have 26 calves so I won't run out of letters lol...The freezebranding idea isn't a bad one, just depends what market your going for.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

Well then tagging is a VERY good idea! I tag by making my own numbers. Since I'm starting my own new herd, I have #1-5. My bull is X1-08. 08 being the year he was born. Since I've seen the tag markers ware off, I've taken the dremmel and engraved the numbers in then colored them in with the black marker( and good thing I did since my bull decided to tackle a dirt pile and is covered in mud!) when my heifers finally calve, I plan to tag them 1a, and 2nd calve 1b...that way I always know who their mom was (by the # infront of the letter) And I've never seen a cow have 26 calves so I won't run out of letters lol...The freezebranding idea isn't a bad one, just depends what market your going for.

Engraving is a good idea!

With the markers I write them twice. I do them once, let dry, then go over them again. With this I haven't had trouble with any waring off but, I like the additional saftey feature you have!