What cattle ear tag supplier do you use?

I was going to start a thread on this. Sick of finding lost tags in the shed. Was going to ask how the cormac tags were doing for ye?
Has the official replacement rate being published yet?
Nothing like a.bit of competition for things to improve.

Use cormac here only since last year mainly due to the faster delivery, used to be waiting weeks on mulinahone. 're losing tags I'll reserve judgement as it's adult animals that lose tags not calves as such I find

Does the same applicator work for both cormac and mullinahone?

Delighted to have an option of leaving Mullinahone, the tag quality had declined and they refused to acknowledge it until forced to allow for "a few batches"🙄
I'd one year if stock where nearly every one lost a tag, (no change in management). I collected them all and sent off a photo looking for free replacements as their quality issues were coming to light in public. No satisfaction or dialogue on the matter at all. General replacement rate is less than satisfactory too compared to the handwritten Allflex tags.

Delighted with the Cormac tag system and two years in, none lost yet!

Avns1s wrote: »

Does the same applicator work for both cormac and mullinahone?

the same applicator but the pin has to be changed

Cormac all the way, haven't replaced a cormac tag yet. Very quick to post out tags aswell.

L1985 wrote: »

@buford. I was having that problem with cormacs as well. Rang them up and gave out and tbf they sent a guy out to look at the tagger and show me the best way of doing it. At the top of the tissue sample apparently you are supposed to pull that down before tagging. It has worked since but that was at the end of calving season. Some service thou as I couldn't imagine mullinahone doing that!! Also they are v v speedy in getting tags out-makes life a lot easier.

You need to put in the bvd tag with the sample jar 1stly, and then the tag with the cutter (pointy end) 1stly, otherwise you knock off the cutter/lid when your putting in the bvd sampler jar. They do throw in afew extra cutting tips incase you lose them (it's the most finicky part of the Cormac tags and I hope they can improve the design in time). Think I've only had one empty bvd sample with Cormac tho, had maybe 10 with mullinahone the previous year.

Cormac for sure...the simplicity of the sample is a peach however the applicator is a little bulky and "hides" your view of the calf's ear as you are aiming between the 2 veins.

No tags lost so far...let's see if they deteriorate over time, as the plastic on the mullinahone ones is be coming brittle and snapping on our 10yr+cows

There was a similar thread to this not so long ago... I more or less made my mind up to change to Cormac after reading it. High rate of tag loss being my reason to change. But, then I spoke to a lad who does a lot of work around cattle, who is meeting farmers all the time. His opinion was that there was little to choose between Mullinahone and Cormac, and he knew people who changed, and changed back again.......So I don't know......

whelan2 wrote: »

Ordered my years supply of tags from mullinahone on 15th of December, they were dispatched today. I will change for next year

I hate tagging . **** of a time job but cormac tagging brought pleasure to a hateful job. I also found cormac staff very polite understanding on the phone . Not cocky and stuck up from mullinahone .

I'd say nearly all mullinshone tags have fallen off my cows here over last couple years & slowly replaced with Cormac!. I haven't had any issue with Cormacs at all since started using them.

We are still using Mullinahone tags and in fairness the quality has improved immensely over the last few years. I've noticed that the majority of dairy cross beef calves that we buy in have Mullinahone tags. I still have to buy in replacement Mullinahone tags for the odd feeder cow that looses one but it's not near a much as it was three/four years ago. Myself and a neighbour share our respective taggers - one has the insert out (for the EID tags) and the other has it in. I recently ordered a few replacement tags on a Sunday night prior to our annual herd test and they arrived in the post the following Thursday.

Just after looking at the link to the pin that you posted... It says it will work in your current tagger for the visual tag. It won't work for the Cormac BVD sample tag.