A year-long study on the sturdiness of national animal identification and tracing (NAIT) tags has shown product degeneration is not the cause of them falling out of ears.
Callaghan Innovation collected NAIT tags from slaughterhouses and tested them for chemical and physical defects, and visited farms to inspect tag application and risks.
“The results found there was no significant change in the chemical composition and hardness of the samples, regardless of age or region,” a report by OSPRI’s head of head of traceability, Kevin Forward, says.
“Some tags showed some colour change and yellowing of the plastic, but this was deemed to be a visual change only and did not impact the durability of the tags.”
Forward says now that chemical composition has been excluded as a cause for tag loss, work will look at other reasons.
In response to media questions, OSPRI said about 1% of cattle arriving at meat processors over the past year were untagged when they were expected to be tagged.
This includes animals that were never tagged, those whose tag was lost before the animal was transported, and those that lost their tag while they were being transported.
Forward said tag retention is the primary concern of farmers when trying to adhere to livestock traceability and there is a perception that tags are falling out earlier than expected.
Callaghan researchers spent time on farms investigating tag design features, tag applicators and the tagging process.
Forward said this revealed fencing wire getting lodged behind the tag to be the main cause of tag failure.
Another cause of tag loss is scrub getting caught behind the tag when cattle are grazing or fossicking.
Tag application is another point of failure, specifically using different applicators to that recommended by the tag manufacturer.
Forward said using the wrong brand of applicator could damage the tag and result in the tag being more prone to failure.
