SUNDRE, Alta. – A small electronic chip in a cow’s ear may jolt beef producers into improving herd records.
Since the discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in an Alberta cow last year, and a second North American case in Washington state last month, interest has grown for animal health and farm managment records.
In Canada, when elec-tronic identification be-comes mandatory Jan. 1, 2005, all cattle leaving their herds of origin will wear a loonie-sized button in their ears. The tag is capable of providing the most reliable traceback information to date, said a tag manufacturer.
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“The number is burned into the chip so it cannot be burned out or erased,” said Clay Ross of Allflex at a producer demonstration in Sundre.
The Canadian Cattle Identification Agency number embedded in the chip is superior to the plastic dangle tags that get lost or covered with dirt.
Special computer programs can record the last four digits of the new chip’s identification number string. If a scale is connected to the system, performance, pregnancy and health data can be recorded in one operation when cattle are being processed.
The tags are read with a wand that looks like a large curling iron. It beeps when it finds the number.
The animal’s head does not have to be restrained to read the number. The tag cannot be read at a distance because the radio frequencies do not register beyond a metre.
A dangle tag will still likely be used for management and sorting livestock because it is visible from a distance.
Ross said in future antennae readers could also be installed at auction yards so numbers are recorded when animals move through the marketing system.
He predicts newer tags could be used to collect DNA samples. When the tag is inserted, a tiny piece of tissue is punched out of the ear and could be retained for DNA specimens.
Other systems have been tested and generally dismissed as impractical for Canadian conditions.
Subcutaneous implants are not recommended because they can migrate and become a food safety problem. If the packing plant cannot find the implant, the carcass is condemned.
Rumen boluses are secure but they are not always easy to get into the stomach.
“You just have to have a few cattle killed because they went down the wrong pipe and that program will go out the window,” Ross said.
Identification boluses are coated with ceramic material and are about the size of a man’s thumb. The packing houses have difficulty removing them from the gut.
If a second one is added, neither can be read electronically.
