The Ripple Effect: Keep tag data up to date

It’s a tale as old as time: producers have a bag of extra tags laying around the barn “just in case.” But when activated tags are only used every once in a while, and the data associated with that tag isn’t updated properly, the impact is felt down the line, well after that cow has left the farm.

“Issues arise when feeder calves are inducted into a feedlot bearing a CCIA tag with the wrong date,” says Casey Vander Ploeg, Vice-President of Alberta Cattle Feeders’ Association (ACFA). “At next calving season, the tag is placed but is a year old. If this wrongly dated tag is not caught and corrected when the feeder is placed in the feedlot, then it carries that tag all the way to the processing plant. When the animal is scanned at the plant, the animal appears one year (or more) older than it actually is. Because tag reads typically trump a “toothed” read or “dentition” read, the cattle feeder is discounted heavily for that animal.”

According to CCIA, there are some best practices to adopt when it comes to age verification:

• The farm of origin is the only account holder that can age verify an animal.
• If you are opting to age verify animals, you need to submit the event PRIOR to the animals leaving the Farm of Origin.
• Only age verify tags AFTER they have been applied to animals.
• Only age verify the tags that you use on animals. Do not enter birthdates for an entire package of tags if you have not used the whole package.
• If you are age verifying using a calving start date, ensure that all tags that you are entering were applied to animals that were born within 90 days of the calving start date.
  • If you calve for longer than 90 days and wish to use a calving start date, you will need to keep track of what tags were applied to animals in each 90-day interval, and age verify separately.
• When you age verify your animals, double check that you have entered the correct year in the date of birth.

This article was first published in the November 2021 edition of ABP Magazine. Watch for more digital content from the magazine on ABP Daily.