30 months?

[grassfarmer]

Great news the border has opened but can anybody tell me how the cattle under 30 months are to be identified? We did the same in the UK and aged them by their teeth initially but this proved wildly inaccurate and eventually we had to introduce individual ID's - the forerunners of the passport system.
Some cattle lost their calf teeth as early as 13 months if they were treated tough yet we had a 42 month old cull that still had her "calf teeth".

[ALICIA]

Are you from england. I just have to look at a animal and I can tell if its under 3 yrs old.

[grassfarmer]

Alicia, But can you tell if it's 29 months or 33 months old ? Hardly what we would call a tracability system to reassure customers in any case.

[pandiana]

Very good question! Do you have to record birthdates now when selling feeder cattle?

[jensend]

I'm sure we will have to in the not-too-distant future. I think RFID tags will be worth the investment down the road, especially if the more intensive testing were to turn up more cases of BSE. I'm sure most people read about the suspected vCJD case in New Zealand recently. I think traceback capabilities will become more important and the ability to positively prove ID and histories will be mandatory.

[ALICIA]

I would say that this would put a end to ever tom dick and harry getting into farming.
Get rid of all the grade cattle. Prebreed breeder tattoo there cattle with the proper letter for the year and the number born this could be changed to date Ali- Breeder or herd
01N-Jan.2003
This would put a stop to missing tags
Missing ears would be a lot harder to loose.

[ValueChainFX]

Trace back is going to be a very important tool without a doubt. The tattoo seems to have worked in some cases, but would be very hard in the plant! RF tags would be probably the best in the long run and the easiest for the producer to use when it comes to information. The cost of these tags is still high, but if the cost is spread across the system, it shouldn't cost the producer anymore than the present system. Since we now know that the whole system needs this trace back, why should the producer carry all the cost?

Also if we do go to the RF tag system (my understanding is it is being tested with CCIA) it would be nice if the producer could get information back on what he has put through the system.

Your thoughts?

[kato]

We have tattooed all of our cows for years now. They are not purebred, but it is a good backup in case of a lost tag.

As of now, people exporting isowean pigs are tattooing them. The tattoos are checked at the border. It works well for them. The only difference is that they are tattooed with a letter for the week of the year (due to their short life spans) It is not impossible to adjust our lettering system to differentiate by the month, instead of the year.

If needed, this would work for export cattle. It would be a quick way to get the live cattle verified at the border. Low tech. Only takes a minute to put a tattoo in. We don't have to wait for technology, and once you buy the tattoo kit, and apply for your individual farm letters, then it only costs a bit of ink. In the long run, it's a lot cheaper. It's a great traceback tool, as well.

Just a thought.

[grassfarmer]

Seems to me suggesting tattooing calves on bigger operations would make tagging look like a good alternative. Logically buyers of feeder cattle might want proof that that poor doing steer is less than 25 months old in the ring although he only weighs 800lbs. The number of these type of cattle around was surprisingly high in the UK once they introduced full individual IDs. I think we need to go to electronic tags probably with a conventional tag in the other ear in case of loss. I once saw a demonstration of an auction market with an overhead reader installed in an alley so that every animal entering the market had it's data automatically read and transferred onto the computer. Most impressive!

[kato]

Tattoing is best at birth. I will agree with that.

The cost is going to have to come down on the electronic ID tags as well. It would sure be nice if they were more affordable.

To have a scanner on the chute at home, and have data fed into a palm pilot automatically to be downloaded into the software program on the computer is a dream of mine.

Anyone working on such a thing?