Discussion on using Brisket Tags for animal ID on the Cow-herd?

[SADIE]

I only know of two types of Brisket animal ID tags on the market.

1)The Boc-lock tag---was the original with metal material to hold the Hard Plastic ID tag. I sold these over the years to a few when operating the veterinary clinics.

I was not a fan of this one.

2)Life of the Cow---Brisket tag. I watched the performance for the last couple of years. In our PFRA pastures (that are still in existence) one is seeing a few more cow-herds taking this approach.

Our family finally "did it". We purchased this LIFE OF COW tag and over the last week started to put them in our cow-herd. These tags are plastic with engraved nos and my brand, they are dual sided with the stem being a thick plastic material that goes through the dewlap area.

Application was with full head in halter and a nose tong to pull the head of cow up and forward for restraint.

The applicator was a very sharp "arrow point" to go through the dewlap.

The idea here is because of so much tagging that goes on in the ear of the adult animal now and this winter again (long and cold temps) a tremendous amount of animal ID dangle tags either broke off at base or gone missing it was time to make a change.

I will have more pictures to show later on this thread.

General comment. I like it. The application of this tag was not bad and the adult bovine was not too disturbed by this.

[grassfarmer]

Why do you not like the Boc-lock? I have a few cows
here on a custom basis that the owner uses these
brisket tags and we have no complaint with them. Bit
of a PIA installing them to adults in a chute compared
to an ear tag but they certainly stay in and are easy to
read in the field. Not so good to read in a group in
corrals or in an alley.

[smcgrath76]

We bought some cows with Boc Locs in. I
am not really a fan as they are very hard
to read, especially if you handle cattle
with a horse. I have a set of number
brand electric irons and we may wind up
just putting the tag number directly on
the hide of replacement females.

[SADIE]

Just a short note---will explain indetail in a day or two with pics.

Boc Lock---Tags.. When we sold them. There was trouble with the numbers staying on the hard plastic. I thought at that time they would be like GF commented---a PIA to apply.

They carry the one number that faces the front of the animal.

Life of the Cow tag----is a very thick plastic that is pliable. When you apply the tag you submerse it in hot water to roll the one engraved number tag into the applicator and once the arrow is punched through the Dewlap tissue the ID tag component sits in the dewlap and the ID can be read from Each side of the animal.

I will take a pic also on what I had welded to the front of the HIGH HOG squeeze so that this application can be done safely.

Individual animal ID is very important to me. My cow-herd is built by buying only bred heifers. The ketchum Curlloc is in each animal and now the LIFE OF THE COW ID nos corresponds to that Ketchum metal tag number.

This spring was difficult during calving when you have the day old calf beside a mother that has NO ID tag in its year.

Sean Mcgrath---you know my herd. I had several mothers that were dark red with a blaze face without ID and calves to tag.

For those that work within a PFRA pasture system or pasture of intermingling the ID pairing of dams to calves is important.

I am not alone in this concern. This last weekend LW Simmental east of you Sean delivered my two yearling bulls. I gave them the pamphlet on this Life of the Cow tag because our conversation was over the time consuming process of many lost tags each year in some of the cow-herds. The ears are "Shot" full of holes. Something else has to be tried for some of us.

[kato]

Looking forward to seeing these tags. I've never heard of them, or seen them before. Who makes and sells them?

We've got lots of cows with boc-loc tags. Fading numbers is our biggest problem with them. In fact, it's the reason we quit using them. A better brisket tag may bring us back.

[grassfarmer]

I did a search looking for more info Kato and found this post on Ranchers. If these are the same product take care Sadie.

comment 1
"The worst ones are the Life of Cow tag, guaranteed for the life of the cow, if you don't kill her putting them in, you use a
broadhead arrow point with a funnel shaped thing that holds the tag. You look like you work for Tyson after putting a few of
those in, and by the way, they only last a couple of years but I did not want them replaced"

comment 2
"We had a neighbor who lost his life putting in brisket tags. He was using the broadhead arrow applicator and it didn't go
completely through with the first thrust. He got on the other side of the heifer, pulled hard, it came through fast and poked
into his leg. It hit the main artery, and even with other people there trying to apply direct pressure, he bled to death."

comment 3 "Those were the most disgusting things I have ever used on a cow, gave up and quit and the ones we put in all
broke apart and fell out...... I can see how the applicator could get hurt seriously with those things"

[smcgrath76]

Best system I have seen for Brisket type
tags is a herd in Southern SK. They had
the tags on a chain around the animal's
neck.
Sadie, I can appreciate the challenge of
matching calves/cows and having no tags or
unreadable ones.
Our Boc Locs in the purchased cows have
faded and are relatively useless.

[grassfarmer]

Are there two kinds of Boc loss? blank ones where
you write the numbers on with some type of pen and
the ones that come with a number kind of embedded
in them? I think the ones we have here are the latter -
they really are as good and clear as new and some
will be 10 years old. I know I've seen blank ones in
the stores.

There used to be a Galloway herd in Scotland that
used chains with brass numbers on them - not good
among bush. I think from old pictures I've seen of
Wye Angus they used the chain system too.

[SADIE]

Haven't neglected your requests Kato and others on agriville. Busy Busy doing the seeding we have with "experienced smaller equipment" that is lighter in weight and not getting stuck.

I will talk to a close neighbor that has and always has used the Buc Lock for years. He has commented on the "pros" and "cons" to me before.

Life of Cow---tag. Yep I was ?? with application at first but this winter through my colleague veterinarians who have now sold them for years introduced me to the clients that have bought and used them now for over 10 years.

Some points I will make on this post?

1)Restraint is the key but where are we at now with any tagging. I am almost to the point in my cow herd that a halter is tied and even the nosetongs applied anyway to "re apply" any of the other tags.

2)Halter and Nose tong is applied and the head is stretched upward and forward in the chute.

3)Listening to the Conference back in 2011 Westeren Canadian Association of Bovine Practioners. Acute pain. The ear of the bovine is like the equine. It is very tender and pain is felt by those animals in those regions.

The dewlap of the adult cow is a Flap of skin" Upon application I was surprised myself that if done properly the animal reacted less than I thought.

4)The key is taking Water Pipe Pliers or any plier and pulling the dewlap forward ahead of the chute. There is now a band of skin as a target.

5)The arrow tip is "sharp" but after about 10 cows one has to change tips. If your thrust hits the metal part of the chute and creats a burr you have to remove the tip. I stopped in Saskatoon at that hunting store with these arrows and got a proper stone, oil and instructions on keeping the arrow tip clean and sharp.

6)The one side of the tag when it is put in hot water with Betadine it becomes very soft and can be folded in the applicator tool which is behind the arrow tip.

7)Serious anatomy is the trachea and esophagus is on the "animal side" of the stretched skin so the key is to bull the dewlap skin forward.

Again I have done a lot of proceedures to the Bovine animal over the years so this wasn't as bad as I first thought of.

Castrating calves--fall calves with a knife. Done thousands. Key is key restraint on the "tail Jack" of that animal. Change the blade every 6-10 calves.

We spayed heifers. FIrst the flank spay "without local anesthesia" very very common back in the 80s. In the area of east central Alberta I took on the challenge to use the vagina approach of heifer spaying and learnt the "Kimberly Rupp" technigue and again the "Ovarian Drop" method.

If I can achieve something that will give me a more permanent bovine animal ID that is readable I am going to try and do it.

Pictures are coming. More pasture pairs to do up for next week and carry a digital camera. I will post a few on agriville. I will post the contact for the supplier as well. It is not through a major distribution center like the other tags.

I will try and get more brochures as well. Any I have got someone asked me for one to take themselves.

[SADIE]

Proceedures done to the bovine animal---

Forgot to mention the classical surgery that as a veterinarian have done many. Even with the best analgesia the complete Bovine Eyeball Enucleation was classical.

To the public perception it is not good to let some people watch the procedure.
IT had to be done or the animal was a "DONNER"---cancer eye.

Animal restraint of the swinging bovine head at the front of the headgate was critical. Head with "good halter" tieback and the Nose Humbugs with good rope were needed.

That being said taking on the Life of the Cow brisket tag procedure can be accomplished safely.

There are two critical parts to retention of an animal tagging system.

1)one it has to remain in the animal for a long period of time.

2)the animal ID has to have the characters remain on the ID tag for the length of the time the tag is in the animal.

[grassfarmer]

Was that as in a DONNER kebab? Glad I never eat
those.
So what do you think of the experiences of these US
ranchers of your new plastic brisket tags coming
apart and falling out?

[SADIE]

Grassfarmer.

A cancer eye cow---the producer has two choices.

1)Shoot her.

2)If the problem is just on the eyeball and not invasive into the surrounding tissue and eyelid complete eye enucleation is very very successful to extend the life of the animal in a cow-herd.

Sorry for the short version--. Did many of these from 1977 to 1996 in herds that were the traditional Hereford animal with the white faces. Pigmentation around the eye certainly helped in decreasing the incidence of CE.

Just briefly looked at your Ranchers Website and read the comments.

I need time to contact this supplier to trace where these tags are made and the complete history of their development.

Again when I started looking into going this route I had questions. I asked some producers in Saskatchewan who are using them and got their history on them as well.

The key is they are not for everyone. I would only want to apply them if I use not only a good halter on the head but nose tongs as well. How many cattlemen have a set of nose tongs in their tack room? The key is safety to the applicator. The key is hot water to make the tag pliable so that it can roll in the tagging tool behind the arrow. The key is a sharp arrow and replace the arrow tip after about 8-10 animals.

I have been a Veterinary surgeon for over 20 years in practice. As I did my C-sec back in the good old days one would stand back and look at ones work.
That is how you improve and got good at anything.

Applying this Life of the Cow tag and doing 40 in one day--along with the other needles for pre-breeding in our cows. I know I placed some of these tags with perfection. They went through the dewlap very easily like a hot knife through butter.

A couple of animals didn't seem to have a lot of extra dewlap and I felt that one placement was closer to the critical area of the trachea and esophagus. This re-inforced to do only so many in a day, do it right and when your tired quit.

I just know that in my cow-herd and in my lifetime of experience all the demand from all technologies is putting a lot of concentration that it has to be an eartag. IMHO (and you know that) I believe there has been a "new type of animal" created now in some of peoples cow-herds.

If I can find another way I will try to achieve that.

FYI I am branding with an electric Iron more than I ever was before also for herd animal ID as well.

Will try to get some picks up tonight.

[WestwardHO]

The numbers not staying on the Bloc-lok is likely due to feeding system you might be using. The tags rub on the metal, planks or what ever. We had excellent retention with the Blok Lok, but still the numbers didn't last because of our fenceline feeders.

[greybeard]

We used Bloc Loc tags for a few years a long time ago. Still have a few and the punch but have no inclination to use them.
A single number on a cow doesn't provide enough information to be bothered with unless you keep diligent records.
When your kneeling down in front of a cow and she is going bezerk in the head gate you question whether maybe you can just remember her as "beautiful" or "jug head" instead of risking your life to get a tag in.
Funny how I remember cows names but can't retain numbers.

[SADIE]

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