Through the system’s growing pains, lots of lessons have been learned and the system is being fine-tuned. Producers are deriving more and more benefit from using farm management systems linked to readers linked to scales, all based on the ability to read the radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. From lost animals, to identification at export, to transport, to traceability, a lot hinges on the tag being present so it can be easily read.

The purebred beef breeds are also using them somewhat for breed identification, in the sense that the different-coloured backs indicate a breed such as Angus (green backs) or Simmental (blue backs).

Some breed organizations have given incentives to register early and receive tags — which are positive ways to ensure use.

The standard tags are still yellow and many of the different sire groups, as well as some of the purebred breeders, are sticking with straight yellow. Many purebred breeders raise two different purebred breeds, so have elected to stay yellow as well.

The bison industry has the white tags, and a marketing fee is attached to them, but it is really easy to see if a producer has put in the wrong tag.

All these options help with marketing or differentiation, and lately I have not seen one microchip fail.

Made to last

Emphasis is now being placed on retaining tags. Before 2020 about 18 per cent of tags were lost by about six years — which most beef cows get to. Dairy cattle on average would not get that old before being shipped. Breeding bulls are usually done by around five to six years on average, so we need to have tags we know are going to last for at least those six years.

From wear and tear, to ultraviolet light, to freezing and thawing in Canada, there is a lot the tag manufacturers are trying to compensate for — and they are doing it.

In tags, the industry leader, and current leader in market share, is Allflex. I know it has been working to strengthen the neck of the tags and a new tagger on the market (the white one) has replaced its green predecessor. It has slightly longer handles, gives more mechanical advantage and even fits smaller hands better. This makes it easier to tag and reduces fatigue if tagging many animals in a day.

If a pin is bent or broken it’s imperative that the same type of pin be used in the same brand of tag. They are all slightly different.

If there is ever a report of excessive tag loss, an investigation, involving either the tag manufacturer or the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA), may follow. In every case I have heard of, the incorrect tagger or pin was used, application was in the wrong area or weather conditions were the potential culprit. Be careful when installing tags in extremely cold weather, as cold tags are not flexible enough.

One must try and put the tag in an area where it’s least likely to be caught or ripped out. An RFID tag should be put ideally a quarter of the way out from the head and in the middle, so the male back end is behind the ear and the thick radio frequency part is in the inside of the ear. This has been found to increase tag longevity. If placed in the top of the ear, the backing frequently gets caught.

I have seen many tags almost rubbed too thin by bulls; they are hard on tags, especially dangle tags, whether from fighting, rubbing, or throwing up dirt with their heads. This abuse gradually wears out the tag backing.

It will be interesting to see if ultraviolet light has any negative effect on some of the new coloured backs. Both the yellow and white tags have been good that way, so time will tell.

Robust systems

If we can keep the retainability creeping upward, tags may be incorporated with other devices that might measure temperature or ruminal movements and could detect disease earlier. Such tags are on the market, but not yet married to CCIA tags.

Even though the U.S. does not have a true national identification system, countries with lots of cattle, such as Brazil, are getting rather robust ones, so the world is changing.

It is great to see tags starting to give back valuable information to owners, and that the beef breeds see this as a valuable step in differentiating themselves. It is positive from world trade and food safety standpoints.

The changeover to ordering CCIA tags from the CCIA office or through the breed association has also gone rather seamlessly.

I encourage everyone to check out the CCIA website and learn the 10 guiding principles for tag application; some have been mentioned in this article.

There is also a user-friendly Canadian Livestock Tracking System (CLTS) mobile app where your password allows input and retrieval of your data. The technology is here; let’s use it.

I see RFID tags applied early in a calf’s life and I see good management, usually. Don’t buck progress, as it only makes lives easier, and traceable marketing improves.

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The Manitoba Pork Council said in a notice to producers Wednesday that the Canadian Pork Council will apply a 10 per cent increase to the prices of PigTrace ear tags and accessories, effective Dec. 15.

Table: PigTrace ear tag price list effective Dec. 15, 2023, including shipping; taxes extra.

As for accessories available from the program, the universal tag applicator will be priced at $30.04; the Retract-o-matic tag applicator, $80.99; a replacement tag pin, $3.50; and a permanent marker, $5.78.

Current pricing will be valid for orders placed and paid by Dec. 14 at 11:59 p.m. ET, the pork council said Wednesday.

The Manitoba council said the CPC “has incurred increased costs for the manufacture and distribution” of the ear tags throughout 2023. “These costs have unfortunately become unsustainable and must be passed on to customers.”

Hog producers can order tags online via their PigTrace accounts, by phone at 1-866-300-1825, by email or by contacting provincial pork offices in their area.

Reporting to PigTrace has been mandatory since 2014 for all people and organizations taking part in movement of pigs. The tag price was last raised in 2019.

“Increased risk from foreign animal diseases such as African swine fever make our traceability program a critical piece of preparedness and zoning activities,” the Manitoba council said Wednesday, adding the use of PigTrace tags for herd management is also encouraged. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Allflex, whose parent firm the Allflex Group rebranded in February under the name Antelliq, announced Aug. 21 it has bought Agrident for an undisclosed sum.

Agrident, set up in 1997 and based at Barsinghausen, about 20 km west of Hanover, makes and sells readers worldwide for farm animal management and traceability systems.

Agrident RFID readers approved by the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency as of last October include the company’s AWR100, AIR100 and AIR200 handheld models and its ASR600 and ASR700 stationary panel readers. Allflex already has six handheld RFID reader models on the CCIA approved list.

Agrident’s fixed and mobile reader systems offer “advanced data capture features for management and traceability” and have “a worldwide reputation for excellence and superior performance,” Allflex said in a release.

“Agrident’s RFID readers and associated technologies are a natural expansion of our smart data products and services, enhancing our capabilities in electronic animal identification and data capture,” Antelliq chief operating officer Brian Bolton said in the same release. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The private equity investor has asked investment advisory boutique Evercore to organise an auction for the company, which is expected to start by mid-November when first information packages to likely bidders will be sent out, the people added.

Aiming to benefit from high valuations for technology companies, Columna is expected to shop the asset to BC Partners — which owns Datamars rival Allflex — as well as other investors such as Advent, KKR, CVC, Cinven, HgCapital and Montagu.

Columna Capital was not immediately available, while Evercore declined to comment.

Datamars makes tags containing electronically stored information, so-called radio-frequency identification (RFID) microchips, which can be used to automatically identify animals and goods. It also makes the microchip scanners that farmers, veterinarians and animal control officers use to monitor livestock or pets.

The company, whose brands include Z Tags and Temple Tag, also makes conventional plastic tags for the livestock market as well as RFID tags for the pet sector.

Datamars — which took over New Zealand-based Zee Tags, the maker of Z Tags, in 2014 — has revenue of about US$100 million, according to Columna’s website.

According to people close to the situation, Datamars’ annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) stand at 20-30 million francs and potential bidders may value the company at up to 15 times that.

Datamars, in which Columna bought a minority interest in 2011 before taking complete control in 2014, employs more than 800 people worldwide.

— Reporting for Reuters by Arno Schuetze. Includes files from AGCanada.com Network staff.

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The purchase was overseen by PSP’s new team in London, led by Simon Marc, and is likely to be followed by further deals in Europe as PSP looks to increase its presence in Europe’s private equity market after having opened an office in London last year.

“We do have an increased emphasis on Europe,” said Guthrie Stewart, global head of private investments at PSP, which has $112 billion of assets under management.

Stewart said that, although PSP has significant infrastructure investments in the region, operating five airports in Europe and investing in the rail and ports sectors in the U.K., it was under-allocated in the private equity space.

“There’s been a conscious effort to increase our presence in Europe and a key initiative to do that is building out a team in London. That team led this effort together with resources for Montreal,” Stewart said in an interview.

Allflex grew from being a low-tech maker of plastic ear tags for cows to a world leader in high-tech labelling after the European Union tightened food traceability rules in 1998 in the wake of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) crisis.

Subsequent crises, including a 2001 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Britain, led to tighter supervision of how livestock is sourced and tracked in Europe, North America and Australasia.

“Allflex is a high-quality, fast-growing industry leader with a unique market position,” Stewart said in a release.

The company’s product lines today include radio‐frequency identification (RFID) and visual ear tags, tissue sampling devices, RFID implants, monitoring devices, milk meters and other farm equipment.

Electronic animal identification is increasingly regulated, which makes it harder for new players to start a business from scratch, leaving established operators such as Allflex with strong growth prospects.

BC Partners bought the Allflex business, based in Vitre, France, from private equity rival Electra Partners for US$1.3 billion in 2013. The British equity firm remains Allflex’s controlling shareholder.

Financial details of the transaction, including the percentage of Montreal-based PSP’s stake, were not disclosed.

PSP, short for the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, manages pension funds for members of the federal public service including the Canadian Forces and RCMP.

— Reporting for Reuters by Matt Scuffham. Includes files from AGCanada.com Network staff.

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With the new system, animals do not need to go through a squeeze chute because it reads the new UHF-RFID tags from up to 30 feet away, and records and tracks data from multiple animals at once.

“Producers can read the tags of groups of animals en route as they move them from pen to pen or pasture to pasture,” says Glen Kathler, the scientist leading the research team, which recently received an award for Innovation in Agricultural Science at the 2015 ASTech Awards. “It will make the whole movement and tracking of animals a lot more efficient and accurate all the way through the supply chain, and minimize stress on the animals, which has an effect on animal performance and productivity.”

Improved traceability

Kathler says the system will also close any existing gaps in traceability, especially from the feedlot to the processing plant.

“We will be able to create an electronic manifest, untouched by human hands, of animal movement through different production stages right to the plant, so any trace-back in the event of a disease outbreak will involve a few keystrokes rather than days of searching to discover what animals have been co-mingled.”

Reducing stress and saving costs

Early production UHF-RFID tags will cost around $5 each and a wide-alley, fixed-reader system and associated software will cost about $10,000. Kathler’s team has done an economic analysis that showed an average Alberta feedlot could potentially save $87,920 through adopting UHF-RFID technology. They estimated about $14 per animal could be saved by not putting it through a squeeze chute, which has been shown to reduce body weight by one per cent due to stress on the animal.

Kathler anticipates savings will increase as UHF-RFID technology becomes more widely adopted, which will drive down the cost of the systems. He expects to see some commercial UHF-RFID systems in place in 2016.

“To begin with I would expect to see this system being used on feedlots or larger primary operations with some sort of closed-loop, herd-management system,” says Kathler. “But I think we will see increasing interest from within the industry. We see some trials now occurring with the USDA in the United States as well, so it’s gaining momentum.”

SAIT’s RFID Application Development Lab (RADLab) is the first in North America — and one of only three worldwide — to establish an ISO-certified RFID test lab to certify new animal-recording technologies. SAIT researchers are also working with the International Committee for Animal Recording to ensure the lab meets international standards.

Capturing big data

The Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency (ALMA) contributed $950,000 towards the UHF-RFID project. President and CEO Gordon Cove says it presented a great opportunity.

“SAIT was a good choice as a partner because it was setting up an RFID lab and it made sense to take advantage of its expertise and work on furthering the technology for the benefit of the livestock sector,” says Cove. “Data is king and the more data producers have, the better decisions they can make to improve productivity and performance. This technology has the potential to capture data and tie in genomic, feed-conversion and health information, environmental footprint; the list is endless. We are happy to be a part of making it all happen.”

The UHF-RFID technology is being tested on ranches in Alberta and British Columbia, as well as at feedlots and auction marts, and on transport trucks. The next step is to tie up any loose ends and to work on helping the industry transition to the new technology.

“We are now looking at working with existing industry partners to make combination LF/UHF tags,” Kathler says. “We are also doing some work with smartphone readers that can use both the LF and the new UHF tags on the same device. So we are also thinking about what it’s going to take for the industry to transition. We hope for the next phase of the project to integrate this UHF technology into some of the existing herd-management software. We see it as a great opportunity for the industry.”

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Traceability, according to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s website is the ability to follow an item or group of items — animals, plants, food products or ingredients — from one point in the supply chain to another.

Traceability systems have three basic elements: animal/product identification; premises identification and and animal/product movement.

As part of the drive towards full traceability, each province has implemented funding programs for producers designed to assist with the cost of implementation — such as purchasing RFID tag readers and software.

Following is an overview of the traceability implementation funding programs available in Western Canada. Programs receive funding through the Federal-Provincial Growing Forward 2 and criteria and delivery agencies vary in each province. Funding for many programs is on a first-come, first-served basis, so producers should apply as early as possible.

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan has a generous Livestock Traceability Rebate program, which began in 2009 under Growing Forward 1 and will continue to offer rebates for equipment purchased up to February 2018.

Continuing under Growing Forward 2, the current program offers a rebate of 70 per cent to a maximum of $50,000 for the purchase or lease of eligible handheld or panel RFID tag readers, software, or for training costs that producers incur to learn how to operate their traceability equipment or software. Only equipment purchased after February 1, 2013 is eligible for this round of funding.

Saskatchewan also offers funding through its On-Farm Food Safety initiative as part of its Verified Beef Production (VBP) program. Producers registered under the VBP can receive 50 per cent funding up to $2,000 for individual livestock weigh scales, squeeze with neck extenders and record keeping software.

Producers can also get 50 per cent up to a $1,000 towards the cost of a first VBP certification audit on their farm. As well, if a producer commissions an on-farm assessment by a veterinarian to develop a biosecurity protocol, he or she may apply for 50 per cent of the cost up to a maximum of $1,000.

For more information go to:

• Livestock Traceability Rebate Program
• Verified Beef Production (Sask.): Food Safety
• Verified Beef Production (Sask.): Biosecurity
• Verified Beef Production (Sask.): Registered Producers

Alberta

Alberta has a number of programs funded through Growing Forward 2, including its Traceability Technology Adoption program. The program will reimburse eligible producers for 70 per cent of approved costs for equipment and software that capture animal data for animal management and traceability purposes.

The Traceability Pilot program is designed to help producers, agribusinesses and non-profit organizations evaluate and recommend ideal traceability technologies that are practical and cost-effective. Projects are evaluated on a case-by-case basis and if there is program funding available and the project meets the Program’s priorities the applicant will be sent an application form.

The Traceability Training program reimburses 100 per cent of approved costs up to $25,000 for organizing and delivering training sessions to increase knowledge about how to implement traceability systems. This program is available to industry organizations, groups, and educational and non-profit institutions, not individual producers. Projects are evaluated on a case by case basis.

For more information go to:

• Growing Forward 2: Traceability Technology
• Growing Forward 2: Traceability Pilot
• Growing Forward 2: Traceability Training

Manitoba

The Beef Program component of Manitoba’s Growing Assurance — Food Safety On-Farm program provides technical and financial assistance to beef producers towards adoption of the principles of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association Verified Beef Production (VBP) program.

Eligible producers can access up to $12,000 in funding through three programs.

Once beef producers have completed training and successfully completed a VBP audit of their facilities they can apply for a number of programs to assist with the cost of purchasing equipment that helps them implement traceability and other aspects of their on-farm food safety system.

The Traceability Program offers eligible producers up to $5,000 on a cost-shared basis (65 per cent government funding and 35 per cent applicant) for the purchase of RFID readers and software and accessories such as a carrying case or docking station.

The Food Safety on-Farm Beef program provides cost-shared funding (65/35) up to a maximum of $2,000 for equipment such as a single animal scale, neck extender chute, electric thermometer, calibration devices for medicated feed and water, software and the first audit (up to $500) for the VBP program

The Biosecurity GAP program provides cost-shared funding (65/35) up to a maximum of $5,000 towards the cost of biosecurity assessment by a veterinarian, as well as equipment such as quarantine pens, cleaning or disinfection stations, and compost sites for management of deadstock.

For more information go to your local Manitoba Agriculture, Food & Rural Initiatives office or visit its website.

British Columbia

The Traceability Adoption Program for 2015-16 has recently been posted on the B.C. Agricultural Research & Development Corporation (ARDCorp) website. It provides between 50 and 75 per cent cost-shared funding to a maximum of $15,000 to producers for the purchase of traceability infrastructure and staff training costs.

The Traceability Speaker program provides funding to agriculture organizations that hold workshops or other events to educate their members about traceability to a maximum of $3,500 per event and $10,000 per sector. Funding is on a first-come, first-served basis and the program ends March 2016.

The B.C. Ministry of Agriculture also provides a no-cost identification program for producers. The Verified Beef Production program offered through the B.C. Cattlemen’s Association, also helps producers access funding — such as through the On-Farm Food Safety Program — for equipment such as weigh scales and squeeze chute neck extenders.

Visit any of the following websites for more information:

• BC Agricultural Council: Traceability Adoption Program
• Government of BC: Traceability Speaker Funding
• Government of BC: Premises ID for Livestock and Poultry
• BC Cattlemen’s Association
• Verified Beef Production (B.C.)

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