Brand new earrings

We shall name her...

This is an ear tag. The Button goes
through the ear and into the tag.
An ear tag only will come out if it cut
out or that is suppose to be how it works

Easter weekend was filled with lots of work around the Boys farm. Including getting all the baby calves tagged. On almost all farms cattle get an ear tag, which is like a earring for cows. However, each farm has a different system to I.D. their cattle. On my family's farm each cow gets a name that will appear on her registration paper (like a paper on a purebred dog), and they also get a number, and that number will appear in their ear tag.

On the Boy's farm the calves also get numbers, however the Boy prefers to refer to each of his calves by name, and a shorten version of that name goes in the ear tag. Since I don't see the calves all the time it can get a little confusing when there are little red and white calves running all over the pasture, so I convince him to tag the calves this weekend so I could start to remember whose who!

I was the tag maker. I quickly got this duty when I made a comment about the Boy's penmanship. hehe

Me spell checking one of the names. Last thing we needed was calves with misspelled names!

Jon tagging one of the younger calves. 

The tags for the calves. The number at the top is their mother's number.

We put all the other calves in the alley. Jon held their heads while I gave them their new earrings. 

Sally with her new earring. The letter in the corner of the tag stands for her sire (dad's) name. 

It is funny to watch the calves get used to their new tags. They tilt their head to the side as if the tag weighs 5 lbs. instead of its actually weigh of a couple ounces. 

It is important that the calves are I.D. so that we can keep records on them. Performance information like birth weight and weaning weight will be recorded. Also, if an animal is sick and is treated this will also be recorded.

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