NAIT Tagging

We had a big job yesterday, NAIT tagging the vast majority of our herd.  NAIT is all about having traceability for our animals - paddock to plate.  Because we are shifting to a new farm on June 1st, we had to make sure all of our cows were tagged, otherwise the trucks wont transport them.  Out of our herd of 170ish cows we ended up tagging 108. 

Ok, so when I say 'we' I mean TJL does the physical stuff and I did all of the recording of NAIT numbers to cow numbers, which then meant I had the fun job of entering onto the computer today.  The actually tagging was a bit stressful.  While the cows are totally used to being handled in their udder region, having TJL handling their ears was a whole other ball game, and the farm we are currently on does not have the best yard set up.  Fortunately there were only a few mishaps, and TJL didn't get hurt (which was my biggest fear).  I am definitely glad that this is one job over and done with.  As from two years ago, with the introduction of NAIT tagging, we have tagged them at the calf stage, which is a heck of a lot easier and relatively stress free. 

I certainly didn't have time to get any photos of the job, but rest assured, there was a LOT of cow poo to clean up at the finish.  Not to mention the super loud mooing and bellowing as they wanted to be out of the yard and eating some lovely fresh grass.  The pet cows were by far the worst, as they have exactly ZERO respect for us, and if they don't want to go somewhere, they'll just push past, so we had a wee bit of trouble with a couple of them - Georgia in particular, she was being super naughty, but she was super annoyed at not being fed.

And now it's back to packing boxes, and trying to get the blasted oven clean - TMI but it's just nasty!