It’s that time of year again. New baby calves. And with new baby calves there comes tagging. Now this isn’t the same kind of tagging that you’re thinking about, but it’s close.

Every farm and every farmer is different. They each have their own style of tagging. They all have the same purpose though. To track their animals.

On our farm, when a new baby calf is born, that calf receives the same number as its’ mother. This way we can match up numbers out in the pasture to make sure that everyone is a ‘pair’. It also allows us to keep track of sick calves better. For example, if number 15 had a bad cough yesterday then we keep checking number 15 every day to make sure it’s improving/treating it for sickness.

If a heifer is chosen to be part of the cow herd she is then given her own number once she becomes of age.

If you’re a lucky cow you even get your name put on your tag! (Like Fancy)

You’ll notice on our tags that there is a number on the top, center of the tag. This is the year that the cow is born. This way we can keep track of her age and how many calves she has had.

Others do it differently. The farmer’s cows have two tags. (Like Lucy)

If you click on the picture you can see just what exactly Lucy has going on in her ears! (Every heifer, that is being keep for a cow, has the orange clip in their ear. Read to find out what that little bugger is!)

No matter how it’s done, it’s done to do the same job. To keep better care of our animals.

Note: This process doesn’t hurt anymore than getting your ears pierced. And please don’t tell me that it’s inhumane because they didn’t have a choice. There are a lot of human babies in this world who didn’t give consent to their parents to pierce their little ears.