Reading cattle tags

Cast - Me (Mum), Husband

Starring - Bill and Ben (20mth old Angus steers)

We had yet to register Bill and Ben to our property, and unfortunately the lady that sold them to us did not know the numbers written on their ear tags.  This meant that Husband and I had to read and then register the ear tag numbers.

Of course, the boys are a bit bossier now, and even had a go at Husband when he went to feed them with their bucket.  They don't need bucket but it is a convenient way of getting them to come to you, and of course this was required when Ben escaped a month ago!

We were soon able to rub their ears while they were scoffing chaff, but Bill was reluctant to let us touch him at all.  After a few weeks, Husband managed to hold onto Ben's ear as he ate.  I had my pen and paper ready as Husband starts to reel off the number/letters.  LOL, Husband has slight dyslexia and the number/letter combination was about 15 characters long. plus the tag is the size of a fifty cent piece!  Having never done this before, we weren't sure if we needed all of the characters.  I was too scared of Ben to hold his ear, so Husband had many attempts at getting the characters whilst Ben tugged his ear back.

Big Bill with his ear tag

In the end, we were able to get Ben's number, but worried that it wasn't in the correct order.  We gave up on Bill that day, it was too hard just getting Ben's!  A few days later Daughter and I got hold of Bill's ear and were able to, after many attempts, read off the number and register our (two) cattle!