Hello everyone! Today we’re going to talk about two important topics in the cattle industry, ownership identification, and traceability. Let’s talk about ownership identification first. It is a well-known fact that keeping track of whom cows belong to is paramount in the cattle business. Ranchers need a way to prove that livestock belongs to them in case they manage to get out of the fence or stolen. Ultimately we ended up with hot iron branding as the answer. Each ranch or cattle operation should have a distinct brand that designates that livestock with specific brands belongs to different ranches.
As time moved on there have been many ways to identify cattle. Hot branding, freeze branding, and ear tags are commonly used for identification today. Of all the different options the only universally accepted way to legally designate ownership of livestock is hot branding with a brand that has been registered with the state of residence of the ranch. Freeze branding is accepted in some states as a legal way of designating ownership, but not all. But branding in general might become a thing of the past.
Moving on to topic number two. Why is it that almost every livestock animal has ear tags or something like it? It is so individual animals can be categorized and tracked. Mostly this is done in case of a disease outbreak in herds. Traceability becomes very important. Fortunately, this hasn’t been a major problem in the United States. Ear tags and individual identification also help ranchers with all sorts of other data to help manage herds. Age, best producers, tracking genetic breeding/bloodlines, tracking which livestock need vaccines are all examples of why ranchers use ear tags to help keep detailed records.
If you are new to the cattle business you will want to be aware of what changes are coming. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags are being mandated for use by the USDA by 2023. That means every cow will have to have an RFID tag after January 1, 2023. This is to improve tracking and traceability of cattle through a large database all around the country. Again this is most important with disease tracking and controlling the spread of diseases. There are a lot of potentials for the RFID tags to assist with lots of aspects of herd management in the future. Information can be coded to the RFID tags such as owner name, address, state, owner phone number. It can be used as a tracking device. Veterinarians will be able to scan the tag of an individual cow and upload its health data to a database. We can see where RFID scanners will be required at auction houses or even private cattle sales because so much data will be dependent on the tag for each cow.
RFID tags could become the new way to verify ownership of cattle. The chain of custody could be updated every time the data on the RFID tag changes. With advancements in technology and data collection, it could very well mean the disappearance of branding. The possibilities are endless because of all the data that can be collected, stored, and
archived.
The one problem with technology though….it breaks occasionally.
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