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| We are a little different in that we are a dairy but I will outline our progression of the tags we are using today and the how we got to these tags. We started with ytex tags about 35yrs ago. primary these were used because they were readily available from a local vendor. We then switched to Allflex tags about 20years ago. The driver behind this was a partner/vendor supplied them at no charge. These were our favorite as far as working cattle in our barns. They were double sided (easy to read from the back of headlocks). However we were always disappointed with retention. We finally decided to purchase ytex tags to remedy this problem. We were very happy with the hot stamped ytex tags for a period of time. Then came 2020 and the world of covid. Ytex decided to discontinue the hotstamped tags and only offer laser printed. Also at this time due to supply issues we purchased ytex RFID's compared to our normal Alflexx. The ytex RFID"s were awful. They were of very poor quality and were not durable at all. We had animals with older ytex laser printed tags and found as they aged they were very difficult to read. Not sure if the newer ones preform better like they say. Ytex told us that they would not be producing hot stamped tags again. We then decided to move to Richey tags. The benefit was simple. No possible way to to fade or ever be unreadable . After about 1000 tags we realized that even though these tags would always be readable retention was awful. Against the recommendation of Richey we switched to Allflex butons on a Richey tag. This combination has performed to our satisfaction in the last couple years (5000ish tags.) This is what we continue to use. However were are currently monitoring another local dairy that is using Richey tags with Afflex tag backs with the number printed on them. This would allow us to more rapidly id animals from the back of our headlocks as I wrote earlier. The last time we evaluated Richey has change their button and claim better retention. At this time we are happy with the Afflex button so their is no reason for us to evaluate this new button. The last point that I will add is that the people at richey have always been great to work with.
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Ear tags
