Help, can't keep ear tags in

[olsun]

In the past several years we have had a lot of trouble keeping tags in cattle's ears. We put tags in the center rib of the ear. The two piece tags we use seem to come apart after a few years. Is there a brand of tags, or a better ear placement, that would improve durability? Any thoughts are much welcomed.

 

[randiliana]

Well, I like to use Y-tex tags. They have a hard plastic collar where the button goes through and they never come apart. We've lost tags when twine has cut through the button, and the odd one where it has ripped the ear out, but never from them popping apart.

 

[forbes family farms]

We used to ear tag our cattle but they fell out as well, i dont know of any other ear tag kinds but what we do with our show calves is take the twine off the hay- corn stock bales and that seems to help alot.

 

[kanshow]

We have the best luck with Z-tags staying in but even they come out.  Seems like the wintertime with bale feeders, etc is the worst on tags. 

 

[DL]

Allflex

 

[hamburgman]

Z tags, and take the twine/net wrap off of your bales.  We don't lose them in cows, if you have a real problem, you can tag both ears, so you have a fall back like they do in dairies

 

[LN]

The Z-tags have worked the best for me.

 

[LazyGLowlines]

We use Z-tags too...button-types don't stay on very well with all the trees and shrubbery in our pens.

 

[HeiferShower14]

This is why we double tag ALL of our cattle so if one falls out we still know whos who intell we get them up.

 

[xxcc]

It doesn't really matter what kind of tag you use.  Round bale feeders tend to fatigue them.  Either like someone said, double tag...or use brisket tags.  They either come hot stamped with numbers or you can number them.  They come in lots of colors.  Many people I know to the north have a lot of brush, so they use them.

you can get them from Western Ranch Supply or Valley Vet usually.  Here are some places to start.

http://www.livestockconcepts.com/266-boc-loc

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft%3Aen-us&um=1&sa=1&q=dewlap+tags&aq=f&oq=&aqi=&start=0

 

[CMB]

We put fly tags in both ears at the beginning of each summer, so we're always putting new ones in anyway. By next summer half of them are gone, doesn't matter what brand. Even the RFID tags come out every once and a while.

 

[showsteerdlux]

We use z tags like they're going out of style. I can't stand anything else once I started using these. Heck, we've even used them on hogs and not had as much trouble with losing them.

 

[Show Heifer]

Ritchie engraveable tags. Never fade, and rarely fall out.

 

[Bone2011]

We have really good luck with ritchy tags then we ingrave them with a dremel tool that we take along with a power converter in the polaris. Also we take the net off the bale and that. for us they only need to stay in for for a year until we freeze brand.

 

[jbw]

Had great luck with Ztags, but we freeze brand everything anyway.

 

[braunvieh]

Ditto on the z-tags. Have also used the Ritchey and they are good as well....always easy to read and numbers can't fade.

 

[Downtown Pete]

ritchy's are the only ones i would use in my cows.  don't fade and rarely fall out.  use the z-tags on the calves because of the price of them.  just like the engravable ones better.  have sold cows that are 10 years old and still had the original tag that is very readable.  worth the cost to me i guess