In June 2019, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine announced that all sheep tags used in moving sheep to the mart, to the factory, or from farm-to-farm must have an electronic component.
This means that some tags farmers became familiar with over the years have become obsolete, as these tags are visual only; now there is a requirement for a new range of tags to fit today’s needs.
Mullinahone Co-op – Ireland’s oldest and best-known supplier of animal identification – has brought to the market new electronic tags. The requirement for any tag is that they must be animal friendly, easy to apply and as affordable as possible.
In the case of the electronic tags, they should always be read with a compatible EID reader. To this end, each electronic tag order produced at Mullinahone Co-op undergoes quality assurance checks throughout production.
The Bubblegum tag
One of the new tags from Mullinahone Co-op is the Bubblegum tag which comes in strips of 10.
It is an extremely lightweight tag and is very well designed. Furthermore, when applying this tag, there is very little resistance in the handles of the tagger.
Another feature of the Bubblegum tag is that it is always applied as a loop tag. But afterwards, if the farmer wishes, the tag can be separated by hand into two specific sides; thus, allowing the ear of the sheep to grow naturally.
As mentioned, the Bubblegum tag comes in strips of 10 for the mart or breeding purposes. The 10 tags will consist of five sets of two – one electronic and one visual.
The electronic tag is always noted by the EID symbol. The Bubblegum tag also comes in strips of 10 electronic tags for use where lambs are going directly to slaughter.
So, the Bubblegum tag can be the tag of choice for many farmers. It can service all situations – slaughter, breeding, mart and farm-to-farm movements using the same tagger.
The Qwik tag
The Qwik tag is designed for slaughter only and it comes in strips of 10; it has its own tagger which is red in colour and is very easy to operate.
The Qwik tag ensures that Mullinahone Co-op has access to a number of options for tagging animals for slaughter.
EID electronic button tag
Farmers will be familiar with this tag as it has been the tag of choice for many sheep farmers over the years.
It can be used as a slaughter tag for going to slaughter, or when paired with the visual tag, it can be used for all other purposes; it is applied with the well-known Allflex standard tagger.
The RapID tag
The RapID tag is the next generation of the Flexitag which was familiar to many sheep farmers across the country over the last 15 years.
The RapID tag has an electronic component in the pin and it comes in strips of 20, which is rolled and loaded into the tagger.
There is no necessity to reload until the 20 tags are used, thus saving the farmer valuable time. This tag will be attractive to farmers with big numbers of sheep and can be used as a slaughter tag only.
The Agrident AWR300 EID tag reader
The Agrident AWR300 is a high-quality, ruggedised, portable RFID tag reader, complying with the ISO11784 / 11785 standards; it reads FDX-B and HDX EID tags.
It has been developed in Germany by Agrident. The device can store up to one million records in several groups. The reader’s battery lasts up to two days in ‘push-to-read’ mode. The reader also comes with free recording software.
It is possible to connect the reader with a smartphone, scales and printers via the readers multiple interfaces of USB, RS232, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
The large colour display clearly shows relevant information at a glance. The AWR300 reader allows the smooth navigation through menus and data with the easy-to-use keys.
In addition, the device has status LEDs above the display for charging and interface information. When an EID tag is read, the multicolour LEDs at the tip of the reader indicate the current reading state which provides visual confirmation in noisy environments.
The Agrident APR500 EID tag reader
The Agrident APR500 is a high-quality, ruggedised, portable RFID tag reader complying with the ISO11784 / 11785 standards. It reads FDX-B and HDX EID tags.
It has been developed in Germany by Agrident. It is possible to connect the reader with smartphone, scales and printers via the readers multiple interfaces of USB, RS232, Bluetooth and the optional GPRS or Wi-Fi.
The tasks can consist of an EID scan, editable selection lists, time stamps, numeric and alphanumeric data, weight from a scale, loops (e.g. at lambing or loading) and lists (e.g. medicines).
The ARP500 reader allows the smooth navigation through menus and data with the easy-to-use ergonomic alphanumeric keypad.
The Allflex LPR EID tag reader
The LPR EID tag reader is one of the lower cost tag readers on the Irish market. It has been developed in France by Allflex.
The reader is lightweight and portable, allowing the user to carry it in a pocket. It works in conjunction with a smartphone via Bluetooth.
A free ‘Allflex Smart List’ app for Android and Apple devices is available to download to allow user interaction with the reader from a smartphone.
The app allows the user to very easily create a list of animals by recording each EID read from the reader. The list can then be sent by email from a smartphone.
Tullamore Show
Mullinahone Co-op will be at this year’s Tullamore Show, this coming Sunday, August 11, at Stand L53.
For more information on bovine electric tagging, just click here
