A New Technique to Ease Collection of Cattle Electronic Identification Numbers

The short read range of current cattle electronic identification ear tags threatens to hinder the widespread adoption and utility of the USDA-developed National Animal Identification System (NAIS). Tag readers that require placement within inches of an animal's ear in order to read the NAIS number introduce obstacles at various points in the beef production cycle. This project will determine if beef producers and marketers can obtain NAIS numbers using wireless sensor network ear tags from a rapidly moving herd with greater surety than when using the slower, single-file, short read range identification devices.