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A lot of attention was focused in 2017 on the opening up of the cattle tag business to multiple approved companies. But a more dramatic change is the accelerating uptake by farmers of electronic tags.
That is despite them costing €1 to €1.20 extra per set depending on supplier. Mullinahone Co-op has watched this trend develop over the past few years. Cormac Tagging and Datamars are also reporting keen interest from their farmer customers.
“Electronic tags began selling four years ago immediately after they were first approved,” said Liam Egan of Mullinahone Co-op.
“It’s mainly dairy farmers who are interested in electronic tagging, but some beef farmers as well. One driver is the difficulties in getting labour.”
“Every year since then, sales have doubled. Last year, we sold 220,000 sets.” That would be about 10% of all tags sold by Mullinahone last year – but if most went to dairy farmers then it’s some 20% of tags the co-op sold to dairy farmers.
That is a very rapid rate of growth which, if it continued, would see electronic tags grow to dominate within three or four years. Liam Egan is a bit cautious.
“They mightn’t double again this year,” he said, “but there is still very high interest. At the recent Irish Farmers Journal Dairy Day event there was huge interest.”
Keen interest
Cormac Tagging is reporting keen farmer interest in electronic tags.
“Dairy farmers mainly want them for use with robotic milking machines, automatic drafting gates and automatic calf feeders,” said Ursula Kelly.
“They can also be used for electronic weighing and for tracking of movement, including during import or export. New uses and applications are being developed and once the herd has electronic tags, new technology can be utilised immediately.”
Some farmers will this year tag all calves with electronic tags, she said.
“Others, who might not yet have automation on the farm, will electronically tag the heifer calves because they plan to invest in automatic drafting or recording over the next year or two.”
Upgrade
In most cases, a herd will, after a few years, include some cows with conventional tags and others with electronic. “It’s possible to upgrade the entire herd in one go by replacing one of the conventional tags with a replacement electronic tag, so that all have an electronic tag.”
There is also interest in reusable electronic button tags, she said.
“These are a low-cost option and they can be removed and used year after year. There is interest in using them with calf feeders.”
Resusable tags
Cormac sells these tags at €3.50 each and they use HDX technology.
“We also do a single use FDX tag priced at €1.50.”
These reusable management tags are not a replacement for the cattle identification tags required under EU and Irish law.
Datamars Ireland is offering an Alpha HDX transponder large tag alongside its Typifix tissue tag, priced at €3.95 per set, in an official identification set.
If a farmer buys electronic tags for calves the set consists of one electronic tag and one visual tissue tag. In addition to having a chip the electronic tag also has printed numbers of the same size as a conventional tag. But the animal number is programmed into the electronic chip as well.
Easy to read
The tags are just as easy to read by eye as a conventional visual tag. Therefore having an electronic tag does not affect the value of an animal sold on at a mart.
Finishers who buy in animals are now starting to see more electronic tags appearing in their yards and the proportion of such animals will grow rapidly.
The breeding herd owner pays a few euros extra for electronic tags for calves. A finisher buying these animals at a mart gets this technology for free.
No doubt as the numbers grow some finishers will then consider utilising these tags to speed up or even automate tasks such as weighing.
Meanwhile, electronic tagging is likely to eventually become compulsory here with conventional tags phased out. The implications of doing so is being considered by a panel within the Department of Agriculture but it remains some years away.
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