Livestock Identification

November 19, 2023

Understanding Cattle Livestock Identification: A Closer Look at Cow Tags

Livestock identification plays a crucial role in managing a successful and organized cattle operation. Whether you’re a smallholder or a farmer running a large commercial farm, effective livestock identification using cow tags and/or other methods will help keep track of individual animals, foster maintenance of a healthy herd, facilitate proper record keeping, and ensure traceability if any of the cows decide to wander off.

The Basics of Cattle Livestock Identification Methods

There are several methods of cattle identification, ranging from traditional branding to more modern electronic identification systems. However, one of the most common and universally recognized methods is the use of ear tags.

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October 17, 2023November 18, 2023

Poultry Leg Bands: Frequently Asked Questions

Modern poultry farmers utilize a variety of effective tools and practices to keep track of their livestock. These range from simple adjustable metal or plastic leg bands to sophisticated RFID foot ring tags for chickens, ducks, geese, pigeons, and other domesticated poultry livestock.

RFID tags, attached to the birds, allow farmers to track individual animals, monitoring their movement, feeding patterns, and health status. Automated systems, on the other hand, allow for large-scale observation of the flock, tracking things like overall feed consumption, temperature in the coop, and egg production. This combination of individual and group data gathering helps poultry farmers maintain healthy flocks and increase productivity.

Our focus today, however, is on small and mid-sized poultry farmers who rely on traditional practices and techniques to ensure the well-being of their birds. This includes the tried-and-true method of attaching poultry leg bands to their birds. These small, colored bands, when placed on the bird’s leg, can help poultry farmers quickly identify individual birds and keep track of important information like breeding pairs or egg-laying patterns.

Below are some of our favorite customer questions relating to poultry leg bands.

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April 17, 2022

How Livestock Tags Can Keep Your Animals Safe and Healthy

A capacity for self-propelled locomotion being one of the hallmarks of what we define as “life,” it follows that keeping track of living things is by no means a simple task. Most creatures, including human beings, are curious by nature, and our innate wanderlust is a manifestation of that curiosity. It’s what has spread our species to every (habitable and not so habitable) corner of the globe, and so we have devised a complicated system of paperwork and documentation to make sure that people are who, what, and where they say they are. Think of I.D. cards, passports, and such as livestock tags for humans.

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February 25, 2022April 5, 2022

Do Your Goats Need Name Tags?

A few years ago we wrote a blog about “The Naming of Goats.” Then, just recently, while shopping on Etsy, we ran across a store selling name tags for goats. And that got us to thinking: Why would a goat need a name tag at all?

Goats are quite amazing creatures in numerous ways. One way, of course, is their remarkable eating habits. The ultimate omnivores, they are known to chomp on everything even vaguely edible—or inedible, for that matter—from grass to tree bark to toxic plants, including poison oak and knapweed. They even have a documented appetite for litter when left unchaperoned. Indeed, that is the theme of the American folk song “Bill Grogan’s Goat”:

One day that goat felt frisk and fine—
Ate three red shirts right off the line.

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March 29, 2021

Livestock Markers: A Useful Tool in the Animal Identification Arsenal

In past articles we’ve discussed the history of marking livestock for identification purposes, from branding to ear tags to RFID (radio frequency identification). Many of these methods, while effective, are also often permanent in nature, which may not be desirable. They may even involve minor injury to the animal or damage to the skin or coat. But what if you don’t want the I.D. to be permanent (much less cause any pain to the animal)? That is where Ketchum livestock markers prove their worth!

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