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Mullinahone cattle tags printed up and boxed with registration forms, tagging instructions and plastic bag for posting on tissue samples.
Farmer-owned Mullinahone Co-op has supplied 50m Allflex tag sets to Irish cattle farmers over 21 years. The Tipperary co-op has invested in its operation every year and now has an efficient, well-proven system in place.
A staff of 24 runs Eurotags, headed up by manager Liam Egan. In addition, the co-op has a dairy food business and another supplying agri-equipment and supplies.
Mullinahone was the first applicant to get approval under the new supply rules. The co-op has Department of Agriculture approval for its conventional, electronic and BVD tissue sampling tags.
Liam Egan is 16 years in his role. At home in Co Offaly, he farms sheep and drystock. “I had cows but you can’t do everything. But the farm is fully stocked,” he said.
Eager for the challenge
Mullinahone is eager for the challenge of the new supplier rules, Egan said. “We’ve all our investment done. We know what we’re doing. We give a very good service and will continue to do so.”
“We pay a lot of attention to presentation and packaging, to give the farmer ease of use,” he said.
“We shrink-wrap every box to keep them dry – tags are usually stored in an outhouse. When you open a box. the first tag you need is the one on top. The cards are placed conveniently as well.”
“The Allflex tag is a superior product and it also continues to improve every year,” Egan said.
“These improvements are aimed at making the tags more durable, less likely to fall out, and more tamper-proof.”
The latest male side of its tag is a one-piece moulding, to make it stronger. In the tissue tag, there are new shoulders on the pin and in the male stem.
They act to increase the thrust force of the pin just as it starts to cut the ear tissue. This will further decrease the already very low empty rate.
“Also, the Allflex tissue tag continues to have a closed head, making it the most tamper-proof tag available in Ireland.”
Mullinahone accepts orders by post and on its website. “After receiving orders, we send the information up to the Department of Agriculture. They check the orders, approve them and then send each farmer’s tag numbers back to us.”
Mullinahone does a significant part of the printing of tags on site, on five lasers. “We print the one-to-fours here, that is the smaller orders. Fifteen thousand farmers have between one and five cows. We also print replacement tags, urgent orders, 2m sheep tags and tags for pigs and any other livestock.”
Printing
At times of peak ordering of cattle tags, printing is farmed out to the three big Allflex production facilities in Europe.
Meanwhile, at Mullinahone, the improvements continue. The co-op has just opened new, larger buildings for printing, storing and dispatching tags and new offices. It has just acquired its own local fibre optic cable to allow the best possible data connection with the Department of Agriculture in Dublin. The leasing charges for this are €8,000 per annum.
This investment has been driven by IT manager Paul Treacy with the support of co-op chief executive Ger Flynn. The co-op has seen a jump in online ordering by farmers this autumn and expects that growth to continue.
“We obviously hope that the majority of our farmer customers will stay with us,” Egan says.
“I would say, before you try elsewhere, be sure the quality of the tag is as good. Check that the lab you use for your BVD testing will test a sample from any other tag.”
Read more from our special focus on animal identification
Farmer-owned Mullinahone Co-op has supplied 50m Allflex tag sets to Irish cattle farmers over 21 years. The Tipperary co-op has invested in its operation every year and now has an efficient, well-proven system in place.
A staff of 24 runs Eurotags, headed up by manager Liam Egan. In addition, the co-op has a dairy food business and another supplying agri-equipment and supplies.
Mullinahone was the first applicant to get approval under the new supply rules. The co-op has Department of Agriculture approval for its conventional, electronic and BVD tissue sampling tags.
Liam Egan is 16 years in his role. At home in Co Offaly, he farms sheep and drystock. “I had cows but you can’t do everything. But the farm is fully stocked,” he said.
Eager for the challenge
Mullinahone is eager for the challenge of the new supplier rules, Egan said. “We’ve all our investment done. We know what we’re doing. We give a very good service and will continue to do so.”
“We pay a lot of attention to presentation and packaging, to give the farmer ease of use,” he said.
“We shrink-wrap every box to keep them dry – tags are usually stored in an outhouse. When you open a box. the first tag you need is the one on top. The cards are placed conveniently as well.”
“The Allflex tag is a superior product and it also continues to improve every year,” Egan said.
“These improvements are aimed at making the tags more durable, less likely to fall out, and more tamper-proof.”
The latest male side of its tag is a one-piece moulding, to make it stronger. In the tissue tag, there are new shoulders on the pin and in the male stem.
They act to increase the thrust force of the pin just as it starts to cut the ear tissue. This will further decrease the already very low empty rate.
“Also, the Allflex tissue tag continues to have a closed head, making it the most tamper-proof tag available in Ireland.”
Mullinahone accepts orders by post and on its website. “After receiving orders, we send the information up to the Department of Agriculture. They check the orders, approve them and then send each farmer’s tag numbers back to us.”
Mullinahone does a significant part of the printing of tags on site, on five lasers. “We print the one-to-fours here, that is the smaller orders. Fifteen thousand farmers have between one and five cows. We also print replacement tags, urgent orders, 2m sheep tags and tags for pigs and any other livestock.”
Printing
At times of peak ordering of cattle tags, printing is farmed out to the three big Allflex production facilities in Europe.
Meanwhile, at Mullinahone, the improvements continue. The co-op has just opened new, larger buildings for printing, storing and dispatching tags and new offices. It has just acquired its own local fibre optic cable to allow the best possible data connection with the Department of Agriculture in Dublin. The leasing charges for this are €8,000 per annum.
This investment has been driven by IT manager Paul Treacy with the support of co-op chief executive Ger Flynn. The co-op has seen a jump in online ordering by farmers this autumn and expects that growth to continue.
“We obviously hope that the majority of our farmer customers will stay with us,” Egan says.
“I would say, before you try elsewhere, be sure the quality of the tag is as good. Check that the lab you use for your BVD testing will test a sample from any other tag.”
Read more from our special focus on animal identification
On this week's show, Sarah McIntosh catches up with Kilkenny native Niamh Bambrick, who is the youngest president of the Agriculture Science Association.
New technologies advancing at pace provide opportunities to identify invaluable production, performance and health information, while also possibly increasing labour efficiency.
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