US to use RFID ear tags on cattle within 180 days

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine Service (APHIS) has announced new regulations for cattle tagging that require the use of electronic (EID) ear tags. The regulations are expected to be published in the Federal Register in May and take effect 180 days after publication. Currently, the only approved electronic official identification tags are RFID tags.
 
The rule is a solution developed by USDA years ago to improve traceability of dairy beef cattle to prevent livestock disease outbreaks. Implementing a traceability system would track and identify animals from birth to slaughter.
 
The soon-to-be-enacted regulations target unneutered cattle and bison aged 18 months and older, all dairy cattle, and any cattle or bison used for Rodeo or recreational activities.

Traditional animal identification requires the user to visually read the printed number on a metal ear tag. Metal tags require manual data entry, increasing the potential for transcription errors.

According to USDA, the manual data entry process can also interfere with normal herd operations, increase stress for animal handlers, and increase the risk of injury to animals and handlers.

USDA officials claim that EID ear tags enable faster and more accurate animal identification data collection. One advantage is that veterinarians can access the information more efficiently and with less disruption to the animal or the herd as a whole.

Currently, the total number of cattle and bison in the United States fluctuates between 85 million and 100 million head annually

Devices approved for EID include 134.2 kHz LF RFID tags that comply with the 11784 and 11785 ISO standards, or UHF RFID tags.APHIS has been providing identification tags to officials for many years. Beginning in 2020, it will provide up to eight million LF RFID tags annually to state animal health officials for monitoring cattle and bison in their states.

APHIS does not recommend specific tag vendors, but tag companies can submit specific products coded with a 15-digit official ID number beginning with ‘840,’ the U.S. ISO country code, to APHIS for approval.