A professor of precision livestock management at the School of Medical and Applied Sciences at Central Queensland University in Australia, Dr. Mark Trotter, has been researching smart e-tags, which are an emerging technology in the beef cattle industry.
Trotter was a speaker at the recent Oklahoma Beef Cattle Summit in Ada, and Oklahoma Farm Report’s Stevie White interviewed him prior to his presentation. Friday’s BeefBuzz included discussions about what e-tags are and do. In today’s BeefBuzz, Ron Hays is featuring comments from that conversation in which Trotter gets more in-depth about the practical use of the tags in a herd.
He pointed out that it often isn’t necessary to tag every animal in a herd. He suggested tagging a handful, then deciding if you like the results before going all in. Applications such as ensuring cattle are in the pastures they should be in, determining grazing habits, or detecting predation would only require tagging five to ten percent of a herd, which would save money for the producer.
“Those more efficient, lower-cost deployments are something that people should be looking at as well,” Trotter advised. “For some smaller producers who might be working off farm, these tags can provide really important information because you aren’t around and available.”
The tags could help such a producer monitor calving heifers, for example. The prices for the tags vary widely, from about $30 each to $150 each, depending on their features and capabilities, and the methods of data delivery.
“What is the key bit of information that you want to get that will increase your production or save you money or time?” Dr. Trotter said. “You’ve got to sit down and think a little bit about that before you jump in and buy. You might walk into it with one application in mind, but then, you’ll find that once you’re in there using it, there is a whole range of other values that you are getting out of that device. We see that regularly when people start to buy into the tags.”
He cautioned about the tags being heavier than normal tags, so applying them in the best circumstances possible is important, so they don’t fall out. He suggested removing an existing ear tag when possible and replacing it with the e-tag in the already established hole.
“You can find some cows if you put that tag into a new hole, you will get an infection, and the weight of that tag just doesn’t allow it to heal,” Trotter warned. “Even if you put those ear tags in an established hole, we say you should really run those cows back in about three or four weeks later to make sure there are no problems with healing.”
He also mentioned some cows that simply don’t hold tags, in which case, he suggested removing the tag and trying again later or just tracking a different cow. Environmental factors also play a part, and he advised against tagging cattle with any sort of tag in hot, humid environments due to increased risks of problems.
“At the end of the day, it is all about retention – keeping those ear tags in,” he said. “Anybody who has put ear tags into cows anywhere knows that keeping those ear tags in is a bit of a challenge. Particularly, with these heavier tags, it is just part of the deal. You are not going to get as good of a retention rate as you would with a lighter weight ID tag.”
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
