Friday Feature: Using RFID Tags on Cattle Operations

By Doug Mayo

At the recent UF/IFAS Beef Cattle Short Course in Gainesville, there was a good deal of discussion about cattle traceability in the event of a major disease outbreak. Much of the effort toward developing a traceability system in the cattle industry has focused on the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) ear and back tags. A multi-year project has been managed by through the Florida Cattlemen’s Association to pilot the use of RFID technology at livestock markets to track cattle automatically as they are worked through the system.

New technology has emerged called ultra high frequency (UHF) that works better for large groups of cattle and normal movement speeds, such as in a livestock market or feedyard than the older low frequency (LF) tags that are primarily read on individual animals. Cattle producers now have two options for RFID tags based on the needs of the operation. U.S. Cattle Trace produced this week’s featured video to talk about how this tool can be used by different types of cattle producers. These tags are not just useful for traceability, but have practical application on the ranch, at the local market, and in the feedyard.  The whole key is to move away from hand written records with numerous errors, to a digital record system with automated recognition. Not only are the records more accurate, but there is a significant labor savings for monitoring larger groups of cattle moving through alleys in groups. More information about RFID tagging systems can be found at https://www.uscattletrace.org/.