Introductory Guide to Electric Ear Tags

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ElectronIc Ear Tag

What are Electric Ear Tags:

Electronic Identification (EID) tags or animal ear tags come in pretty much every other kind of sheep tag that you can buy. The EID tag is put in the sheep’s ear the same way a regular visual tag is.

Tags can either be used more than once or only once. The National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) says that tags can’t be used more than once. What type of EID tags will work best for you will depend on what you want to do and what state you farm in.

EID tags or electronic ear tags can be printed in ways that work for your system, but by default, they have a unique NLIS number on the back (this is not the electronic number that appears when scanned). The tags are made to last the whole life of the sheep, so they are very strong.

How Do EID Tags Function:

RFID (radio frequency identification) is used in EID tags. RFID is part of a group of technologies called AIDC, which stands for automatic identification and data capture. These technologies let you automatically identify things by scanning them.

Each EID tag has an integrated circuit and a coil antenna that send radio waves to the RFID reader to send the data.

How it works is as follows:

  • The tag is scanned by the reader.
  • The reader turns on the tag by making an electromagnetic field (EID tags have no power source of their own)
  • The 15-digit number is sent back to the reader by the tag using radio waves.
  • The radio waves are turned into the tag number by the reader.

Types of Electric Tags:

EID tags come in two kinds:

FDX (full-duplex): 

An FDX transponder will send its data while the RFID reader’s antenna sends a magnetic field.

HDX (half-duplex): 

HDX transponders are different from FDX transponders because they wait until the RFID reader’s magnetic field is turned off before sending their information. This means the reader will be able to find the transponder from further away.

Advantages of Using Ear Tags:

The main reason for using EID tags is to take people out of the data collection process, especially when it comes to reading and writing down tag numbers. No matter how careful you are, you will always make the occasional mistake. This could be because the number was written down wrong or because it was read wrong. When you use EID tags, your data will always be correct.

The other advantage is that it saves time. When used with high-quality Pedigree and Performance recording software like Animals Microchip, EID tags speed up the data collection process. This makes your business more efficient and cuts down on your labor costs.

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