Mandatory EID of cattle from middle of next year

Rusty Spade

Well-Known Member
Looks like all calves born from the middle of next year will now have to have an EID tag along with a tissue tag. So we pay extra for tagging with few inside the farm gate able to benefit from those tags but making life easier outside the farm gate for no extra cost.

Great!

 
Looks like all calves born from the middle of next year will now have to have an EID tag along with a tissue tag. So we pay extra for tagging with few inside the farm gate able to benefit from those tags but making life easier outside the farm gate for no extra cost.

Great!

A mute point maybe, but as you are a dairy farmer I think, wouldn't you more than likely have been EID tagging your dairy stock anyways probably down the road if you perhaps might install a drafting gate for example? I know it will probably cost a few quid but I reckon it is a forward thinking step and can see the value in it.
 
A mute point maybe, but as you are a dairy farmer I think, wouldn't you more than likely have been EID tagging your dairy stock anyways probably down the road if you perhaps might install a drafting gate for example? I know it will probably cost a few quid but I reckon it is a forward thinking step and can see the value in it.
Yeah, i was already EID on the calves for feeding and have just bought a reader for scanning the younger animals for dosing to ease the paperwork a bit and will probably do the same for the lambs next spring.

It's a needless cost for the vast majority of farmers in both sheep and cattle though. I don't see an extra cent being paid for our stock because they can be reduce everyone elses workload.
In effect, we're subsidising the rest of the industry would be my way of looking at it.
 
Yeah, i was already EID on the calves for feeding and have just bought a reader for scanning the younger animals for dosing to ease the paperwork a bit and will probably do the same for the lambs next spring.

It's a needless cost for the vast majority of farmers in both sheep and cattle though. I don't see an extra cent being paid for our stock because they can be reduce everyone elses workload.
In effect, we're subsidising the rest of the industry would be my way of looking at it.
If nothing else it will put an end to cattle rustling, certainly won't make tags any cheaper though so I take your point re cost.
 
How will it stop rustling.those that are at it are always a step ahead or it would be long over by now
 
I think the sooner all calves born are genotyped the better to be honest
That's being set up under the next CAP plan, a scheme that provides for genotyping as one option from a menu. Once BVD is cleared, the samples will be DNA tested rather than BVD tested, I'd say.
 
If nothing else it will put an end to cattle rustling, certainly won't make tags any cheaper though so I take your point re cost.
The EID tag is just a normal ear tag, as easy to change as a non EID tag, unfortunately.

Though I reckon a lot of those finishing cattle would be going onto the black market or crossing the border.
 
Yeah, i was already EID on the calves for feeding and have just bought a reader for scanning the younger animals for dosing to ease the paperwork a bit and will probably do the same for the lambs next spring.

It's a needless cost for the vast majority of farmers in both sheep and cattle though. I don't see an extra cent being paid for our stock because they can be reduce everyone elses workload.
In effect, we're subsidising the rest of the industry would be my way of looking at it.

What scanner did you buy, and is it possible to sync it with your herd software?
 
Anyone ever come across a EID scanner add on for a smartphone??

I wouldn't mind if all the cattle I bought had EID, it would put a bomb under me to get some kind of software to record weights!
 
Anyone ever come across a EID scanner add on for a smartphone??

I wouldn't mind if all the cattle I bought had EID, it would put a bomb under me to get some kind of software to record weights!
Google finds this that bluethooths to a smartphone (with their app) and fills in data.
 
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Anyone ever come across a EID scanner add on for a smartphone??

I wouldn't mind if all the cattle I bought had EID, it would put a bomb under me to get some kind of software to record weights!
If you needed an eid scanner to do a tiktok or go on Facebook they’d be free,you can buy one for a phone but there not robust enough for ag use,mainly sold for pet chips,some are the same frequently as cattle and sheep tags because I looked at buying one a few years ago.
 
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If you needed an eid scanner to do a tiktok or go on Facebook they’d be free,you can buy one for a phone but there not robust enough for ag use,mainly sold for pet chips,some are the same frequently as cattle and sheep tags because I looked at buying one a few years ago.
What would be the job is a phone case with built in reader.
Just for small jobs.
Say you caught a ewe to inject in the field.
Whip the phone out and quick bleep and you're away.
They are all too bulky for that.

My wand reads dog chips. Bloody nuicance as I had a long list of ewes with the dog's number half way down once!😂
 
If nothing else it will put an end to cattle rustling, certainly won't make tags any cheaper though so I take your point re cost.
Nothing really happens to people caught rustling as such , even by the dept.there is no severe penalty ever handed out to deter would be that rustlers
The man caught at Virginia show for stealing a calf , swapping tags and he was got 2 or 3 days later.it came to light that there was another animal that suffered the same faith at the same show a few yrs earlier.people did recognise the cow but nobody could prove it.
Case went to court by the dept which @CavanJacks And other's will remember but feck out came out of it......slap on the wrist.stealing was one thing but changing tags was another.i know that person and I don't have any time for sweet talkers.he was charged alright but there was no deterent to prevent anyone considering the same stunt.
Man appeared to a local show the following year, nobody even bid him the time of day and the judge placed him last on the basis the cow was to big to suit lying in a cubicle..
The UK and NI seems to take a stricter view on rustling with severe penalties
 
On cattle rustling, I would be suspicious at the quoted figures. Many of the farmers involved who had animals stolen from them, would be angels. Now I know there are genuine cases, but very often there is a story behind the scenes. Years ago I had a less than a week old calf stolen from an out farm. Cow was going balistic and kept following the same trail the Thief took, following year another neighbour had the same fate.
 
On cattle rustling, I would be suspicious at the quoted figures. Many of the farmers involved who had animals stolen from them, would be angels. Now I know there are genuine cases, but very often there is a story behind the scenes. Years ago I had a less than a week old calf stolen from an out farm. Cow was going balistic and kept following the same trail the Thief took, following year another neighbour had the same fate.
The numbers can be updated after a while. I had an animal I reported missing, no idea what happened her, no body or trace of escape and it showed up as one of only a few animals reported missing in the county.

Turns out I had entered the wrong number on a movement cert, pretty much the same digits with only 1 different digit, so an animal with the wrong tag was found here and an animal that had the wrong tag was found in the buying herd. Kept getting calls from the Dept about the animal until both my herd test and the buying herd tests were carried out around the same time and we figured out what had happened then.
 
The numbers can be updated after a while. I had an animal I reported missing, no idea what happened her, no body or trace of escape and it showed up as one of only a few animals reported missing in the county.

Turns out I had entered the wrong number on a movement cert, pretty much the same digits with only 1 different digit, so an animal with the wrong tag was found here and an animal that had the wrong tag was found in the buying herd. Kept getting calls from the Dept about the animal until both my herd test and the buying herd tests were carried out around the same time and we figured out what had happened then.
We lost another animal a few years ago off a bunch of 7 red limousins. Someone forgot that there were 6 red limos and one black limo. Spent the following 12 months looking for the 7th red limi until one day we were killing cattle and we copped on.


Friend bought an animal at one end of the country and spotted the same animal at a mart 200kms away in the ring to be sold.
 
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