Our Maker's Acres Family Farm Tattoo Parlor

With 2 Jersey heifers (Clarabelle and Luna) born, there are things that must be done.  First, as early as possible, we de-horn them.  We completed that process on both of them.  Clarabelle's horn buds, or where they were, anyway, have totally healed up.  Luna's are in the process of healing.  Hopefully, the de-horning paste did the job.  Sometimes the horn will try to re-grow and then we have to bring them to the veterinarian for a surgical job.  They both look good so far.

We also have them genetically tested for A2/A2 genetics.  We did that early on and received postive results back for both of them (YES!!).  Then, somewhere after the four month old period, they can be vaccinated for Brucellosis, also known as Bang's disease.  We will be calling our veterinarian for a farm call shortly to come make a farm call and take care of that since Clarabelle is nearing 6 months old.

The item that is pressing right now is to have both of these girls registered with the American Jersey Cattle Association (AJCA).  It is a real quick process and we find that the nice folks at AJCA are very efficient and get all the information back promptly.  One of the things they need is permanent identification.  This can either be done with tamper-proof ear tags or ear tattoos.  We've always tattooed them and we'll show you how we do it.

First we use the clippers to trim some of the hair out of their ears.  We'll start with Clarabelle.  They don't like the noise of the clipper much, but Tricia holds her head firmly and I clip.  Before you know it, we're done.  

Clipping the ear hair

You can't have two animals with the same tattoo.  The tattoo must have at least one letter and one number.  We use Benjamin's first and middle initial, followed by a number.  Today, we will use BP4 and BP5.  That marks the fourth and fifth animal that we've registered under Benjamin's name. We've registered others under Russ' name.

Fortunately we don't have to purchase the tattooing device.  Our local LSU AgCenter Extension Office has everything we need and all we have to do is borrow it.  Pretty good deal.  Here is an example of one of the little plates used to tattoo.  This one below has a #1 on it:

#1

As I turn it around, you can see the 'business end' of the tattoo plate.  There are pointed spikes arranged, in this case, as the #1.  This will penetrate the ear. OUCH!!!

Pointed Spikes

You arrange the letters/number combination that you want your tattoo to be into the tattoo pliers in the proper order and tighten down on the plate that holds them in place.  You can see "BP4" below. Everything is ready to go.

BP4 - Clarabelle's tattoo

Here is a picture of the tattooing tool.  I don't know if you can tell or not, but I've tested it out by pressing through the piece of paper that the tattoo pliers are lying on just to make sure that the letters/numbers are in the correct order.  Looks good to me.

And here is little Clarabelle.  She knows something is about to go down.  They get nervous and start to poop, so we cleaned up the area got ready.  

Clarabelle

With the tattoo pliers loaded with BP4, there are two additional things that must be done.  First, Tricia cleans her ears with alcohol, ensuring things are nice and sanitary as we'll be piercing her ear. We don't want to introduce bacteria.  

Cleaning her ears

Then we take bright green ink that is included in the box with the pair of tattoo pliers and, using a rag, I apply a coating of green ink to Clarabelle's ears.  I'll put the ink right in the center of two of the ribs in her ears and I make sure that the ink is wide enough to encompass the area that the tattoo plates will pierce.

Marking the ears

My hands were busy with the pliers and Tricia's were busy holding Clarabelle, so we don't have an action shot of the actual tattoo, but you can imagine what happens. We place the pliers over the inked area with the ear between the pliers and press down.  Ouch!  Yep, it is probably painful, but just for a little while.  Clarabelle squirmed and Tricia held her and talked to her gently to settle her down.  I repeated on the other ear.  We always tattoo both ears in the event that one of them did not turn out good.  Once we have pierced the ear, I AGAIN apply fresh ink to the pierced area, rubbing in into the pierced area with a rag.

Then we do the exact same thing with little Luna:

Luna's turn!

Luna was real dramatic and collapsed once we tattooed her.  We quickly picked her back up and consoled the little girl.

Now that we have the animals tattooed, we'll complete the registration with the American Jersey Cattle Association, providing them with the following:

Permanent identification of the calf.

Birth date of the calf.

Name and registration number of the sire.

Name and registration number of the dam.

We also provide the AJCA with the name of the animal we are registering:

The first name is the farm’s name or your reserved prefix name. The second is the sire’s “common” name. The third is the cow family or barn name, which can start with the same letter as the dam’s name. Or, you can use a bird family, a flower family, the cow’s number or anything else you desire. The tattoo can also be used as the third name.  All names must be one-of-a-kind, so please indicate a second choice name.

So with the tattooing completed at Our Maker's Acres Tattoo Parlor, the girls are relieved and we'll get our registration forms in the mail shortly.