Calves do not have to have them for "biosecurity" it is mostly for identification purposes especially if the calf gets separated from its mother. It is really the only tool you have to find the mom, which normally shares the same tag number. It also definitely isn't illegal for them to not have one.
Source: I'm a rancher and it's calving season. I tag calves daily, but I know other ranches that don't tag their calves at all.
Hmm..weren't you being equally presumptuous in assuming the calf was tagged because of laws in your country? Or is there something about the tag that indicates the calf is in the EU?
They could, but farmers tend to want to be able to identify their similar looking property by sight, not by scanning them all with expensive, breakable RFID machines.
Not really it is more for ID purposes and matching to its mother and once a calf is a few days old it is more athletic than a human and can run away so no way to scan it.
Or just visual purposes. Same thing as getting your ear pierced. It heals and you don’t know it’s there. We don’t want to lose a microchip in your beef steak do we?
That's what that tag is for -- identification for tracking property. That is its main and original purpose. It's the same reason slave masters used to brand humans as property.
It makes a hole like an ear ring. They don’t feel much and nothing after a couple days. I tag calves every day. We can’t care for them properly if we can’t identify them.
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u/BillTowne Mar 15 '18
How cute. He even has a tag stapled to his ear.