Ear Tag Shortages Take a Toll on Animal Identification

Supply shortages are impacting the availability of identification ear tags needed for cattle producers. While this might seem like a small problem, the backlog of ear tags is being felt by producers from all over the country.
Supply shortages are impacting the availability of identification ear tags needed for cattle producers. While this might seem like a small problem, the backlog of ear tags is being felt by producers from all over the country.
(Jersey Journal)

Speared by the pandemic, bottlenecks and hurdles have been something dairy producers have had to endure over the last several years. From blockage at shipping terminals and labor availability here in the U.S., one common area that producers from coast to coast have been struggling with is ear tag shortages. 

Supply shortages are impacting the availability of identification ear tags needed for cattle producers. While this might seem like a small problem, the backlog of ear tags is being felt by producers from all over the country. 

Producers Struggle

Out west in California, dairy producer Darlene Lopes has been dealing with an ear tag backlog since November.

“We placed a tag order on November 1 that we just received in February,” Lopes shares. “And we just got another order that we placed at the beginning of December about 10 days ago.”

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 waits on her Allflex tag order, her employees scour to find whatever they can.

“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] numbers, so we had to delete all of those and assign them a new RFID number,” Lopes says.

Out east, producer Melissa Zirk says she started hearing rumblings of tag backlogs in November, so she went ahead and ordered some, assuming it would only take the usual two to three weeks. 

“Time went on and I ran out of the RFID buttons and number tags in January,” she states. “Thankfully we didn’t rely on the tags for robotic feeding, as some farmers were having trouble with.”

Zirk and her family milk 185 cows near Littlestown, Pa. While waiting for tags to arrive, the family decided to tattoo calves to help with identification. This became vital once the calves were weaned or they would not know which calves were which.

“We had no idea when we would receive our order, so this was a must,” she notes. “I called my supplier at the beginning of February, and they said it would be at least another three to four weeks until I would receive my order.”

Last week, the Zirk family was able to tag all 40 calves that needed to be done and believe they will be receiving their next order soon.

Allflex Commitment

The cause of the initial delay in orders stems from the movement of the Allflex Identification business to the Merck ERP (SAP) late last year. Paul Koffman, North American Lead with Allflex, states this change will increase their capacity long-term. He shares that the delay was made significantly worse by the Omicron variant surge earlier this year that impacted both workforce availability and supply of raw material. 

“We are making solid progress in reducing our production backlog every day and returning to full production capacity,” Koffman says.

The Allflex printing facility located in Dallas, which produces their ID tags, continues to operate 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

“We are scheduled to be current on all data entry by mid-April,” Koffman shares.

Looking towards the future, Allflex has secured a second production facility that will complement their Dallas operations.

“This will add a significant long-term capability when fully operational in the coming months,” Koffman notes.

Back in California, Lopes knows that these kinds of backlogs will continue to be felt in other areas of her farm. 

“It’s getting harder to get parts for equipment breakdowns as well. We’ve waited over four months to get a part for a loader that we use to feed the cows,” Lopes says.

Meanwhile, Allflex states that its top priority is its customers. 

“We will continue to do everything we can to increase our production capabilities until we reach full production capacity,” Koffman says.

 

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