A tightening of the calving spread on dairy farms and significant expansion in numbers in recent years has witnessed the window for ordering and supplying tags becoming increasing condensed.

In recent years, many farmers have moved to get in ahead of the big rush in tag orders with tag suppliers starting to see a gradual increase in orders being submitted.

Tag orders for 2022 are occurring against a backdrop of new regulations coming in to play in 2022. From 1 July 2022, all newborn calves must be tagged with an electronic tag while from 1 January 2022, all cattle tag suppliers will be required to supply an EID tag with all new tag orders meaning that each new tag set will include one electronic tag and a tissue tag for the submission of samples under the Bovine Viral Diarrhoea National Eradication Plan.

Tag colour

EID tags will be white in colour while the colour of conventional and tissue tags will remain yellow. Farmers should be cognisant of the new regulations and only order the number of conventional tags which they will require up to 1 July 2022.

The Minister for Agriculture has previously stated that his Department was working on a tag subvention scheme to assist producers in covering the increased cost of electronic tags. There has been no information regarding the financial package which will be available since the announcement in August.