An animal’s ear could support tremendous technology for the livestock industry if high frequency radio tags were adopted, says a wireless researcher from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.
“Low frequency works, but I believe there are some other technologies that will provide additional use to this particular industry,” Glen Kathler said during the recent Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency meeting in Calgary.
The technical school received $950,000 from ALMA plus federal money to test ultra high frequency ear tags for cattle identification. The Canadian livestock industry now uses low frequency identification.
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An advantage of high frequency tags is the ability to add information to the tag, such as farm of origin, the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency number and management information.
The current low frequency tag carries a 15 digit unique number. Canada has a trillion numbers available. The tag has no memory and the number is activated with an electronic reader. Information can be fed into a computer.
The current system can also read about one animal per second from about two feet away, but animals move quickly and detection can be frustrating.
Kathler said UHF technology could be more accurate and read faster as cattle move in a pen or through chutes. The UHF tag could offer a 24 character identifier that offers a quadrillion numbers.
SAIT researchers are testing several types of tags for readability and retention. They are considering a curl lock type tag that could go anywhere on the outer ear.
Tags must work in wet conditions and withstand ammonia vapour to be useful to the industry.
