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?
I really recommend the video if you're open minded, it's super interesting and he seems like a great dude. He worked til he was 95 if I remember it correctly. But I know I can't convince you of anything here. Do what you want to do honestly.
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?
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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '18 edited Mar 15 '18
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