Allflex Reports Ear Tags Are Back in Full Production Mode

Bottlenecks and hurdles have been a constant challenge producers have had to work around since the pandemic. Supply shortages, including the struggle of locating ear tags, might seem like a small problem, but the need for identification is essential and the backlog of ear tags has been an issue producers from coast to coast have had to try to work around.

California dairy producer Darlene Lopes felt this frustration. Lopes and her husband, Paul, along with their son, Tony, manage 4,000 Holstein cows, 2,500 head of Angus-Crossbred cattle and farm 2,100 acres in the Central Valley.

With hundreds of calves on milk, identification is a must for Lopes. Regardless of the size of the operation, identification is vital in tracking cattle performance and is used to make management decisions for all dairy farmers. 

As Lopes waited on her Allflex tag order, her employees had to scour to find whatever they could to identify animals.

“We gave calves a temporary blank, different color tag, really whatever we could find,” she notes. “And of course, there’s some employee error when they’re writing the numbers down instead of the pre-printed ones.”

Lopes also ran out of RFID tags, which became a problem considering all their crossbred calves are custom raised at an offsite ranch that requires an RFID tag.

“The state veterinarian gave us 1,000 tags,” Lopes shares. “If he hadn’t done that, we would not have been able to comply with state rules.”

Once Lopes's tag order arrived, her staff had to go back and re-tag all the cattle.

“We purchase the sets that come with RFID that are already set to that particular [tag] number, so we had to delete all of those and assign them a new RFID number,” Lopes says.

Allflex’s Commitment

The cause of the initial delay in orders stems from the movement of the Allflex Identification business to the Merck ERP (SAP) in 2021. The Omicron variant surge earlier that year impacted both workforce availability and supply of raw materials, making this situation significantly worse. 

“Merck Animal Health has invested in expanded manufacturing capacity to ensure a continued reliable supply of Allflex ear tags,” Paul Koffman, executive director of Livestock Technology Solutions, North America for Merck Animal Health, shares.

Koffman shares that they are pleased to report Allflex ear tags from Merck Animal Health are in full production and back up to pre-COVID production levels.

“That means dairy producers can expect much shorter lead times to receive online ear tag orders. Retail locations in most areas now have Allflex ear tags readily available,” Koffman says.

Dairy producers can contact their ear tag supplier or visit AllflexUSA.com for more information.