Everything You Need to know About Electronic Ear Tags For Cattle

If you run a cattle farming business, you must know that electronic ear tags are the best way to efficiently identify your cattle. Electronic ear tags have made life easier for the cattle businesses out there. 

What is an Electronic Ear Tag?

Electronic ear tags are button-like tags that are small in size. These electronic tags are placed in the ears of the cattle. The electronic ear tags for cattle have a unique number of 15-digit printed on each electronic ear tag. The tags are read by scanning them through an electronic ear tag reader. Once you put these tags on the cattle, they last for the lifetime of the cattle. They are just like conventional visual tags. Choosing the best type of electronic ear tags for your cattle depends on the type of country and farm you have. 

According to the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS), you must only use the electronic ear tags once. They must not be reused. The electronic ear tags are quite durable and work for the entire lifespan of your cattle. If you want to customize the printing solutions on the tag so they can suit your system, you can do that as well. But keep this in mind that the National Livestock Identification System number printed on the underside will be unique and appear by default. Both the numbers can be different from each other if you want. 

How Do Electronic Ear Tags Work?

You must be wondering how these electronic ear tags work? Let us explain it to you in detail. The Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is used for electronic ear tags. Have you heard of Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC)? Do not worry if you have not. Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) is a technology through which you can identify objects automatically by scanning them. And RFID ( Radio Frequency Identification ) is a part of AIDC (Automatic Identification and Data Capture). 

The coil antenna and the integrated circuit in the electronic ear tags are what transfer the data through radio waves to the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). Let’s take a look at how the process works:

• You or whoever else the reader is will scan the tag first.
• The electronic ear tags do not have their power source so the reader develops an electromagnetic field that supplies power to the tags. 
• The electronic ear tags use radio waves to transmit the number of 15-digit to the reader. 
• The reader forms a tag number by converting the radio waves.
• You can see the stored tag number after you follow the whole process.

What are the Two Types of Electronic Ear Tags?

There are mainly two types of electronic ear tags:

• FDX (Full-Duplex): An FDX transponder will communicate its data while the RFID reader broadcasts a magnetic field from its antenna.
• HDX (half-duplex): HDX transponders wait till the magnetic field from the RFID reader has diminished before transmitting their data, in contrast to FDX transponders. This suggests that the reader will be able to detect the transponder at a greater distance.

Both tags (HDX and FDX) utilize the 135.2kHz band and match the requirements of ISO standards. Through this, the FDX and HDX tags can be read and work through most kinds of materials in dry and wet conditions. There are many similarities and a few differences between FDX and HDX tags. 

Advantages of Cattle Traceability for Farmers

• It is a great help for the farmers when they trace and keep the record of their cattle because this way they get to know about the poorly performing animal. This way they can keep the performance record of every animal.
• In the long run, you can maximize your profits by identifying an animal’s history to check if they have been a good or a bad performer. The management of information about the cattle becomes far easier. 
• Through specific cattle farm software, a farmer can easily calculate any animal’s data output. 
• In addition to following animals down the food chain from grower to slaughter or retailer, effective systems must be able to track meat products up the supply chain utilizing the records that have been kept at each point of the chain.
• Quality assurance, traceability, and transparency play a crucial role in livestock accreditation schemes and product assurance. The traceability of the cattle relies on movement recording and efficient livestock identification. 
• In many countries, the identification and traceability of farmed cattle is a legal requirement. They say that the movements of the pigs, cattle, goats, and sheep must be note and recorded at all times. 

There are non-electronic ear tags for the cattle as well. In both private and public farms, the most typical kind of ear tags are non-electronic ear tags. To immediately identify the breeding herd or sire lines, different tags are easy to use and put. Additional digits or letters can added to the tag numbers depending on the farmer’s preferences. 

Electronic ear tags are usually referrer to as Electronic identification (EID) using RFID technology and offer the ability to more efficiently manage the individual performance of a herd. Commercial dairy farmers commonly employ Electronic Ear Tags. They make data collecting from tags’ microchips easier and faster. 

Upcoming Frontiers

After the invention of electronic ear tags, animal facial recognition is on its way. Artificial Intelligence is taking over the world by bringing new inventions that will make our lives way easier. The animal facial recognition system will completely eliminate the chances of errors and risks occurring during the traceability of the cattle. Due to this system, data recording and keeping will become safer, faster, easier, and cheaper. Facial recognition does not mean that the system will become faultless but yes, the accuracy rate will reach up to 90%. Facial recognition also does not involve replacing or removing the ear tags. We hope this blog helps you to gain knowledge about electronic ear tags for your cattle business.