Indiana’s 840 RFID Tag Pilot Program

The Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH) has announced its 840 RFID Tag Pilot Program, under the pilot program, the BOAH is offering FREE 840 RFID Tags for Hossier cattle producers.

The 840 RFID tags come in lots of 25 pieces; they are the yellow button type electronic tags, which are supplied by Allflex (An Approved USDA Vendor).

The tags used in the voluntary pilot program are for breeding cattle, under the age of 2 years. The free 840 RFID tags are only available to cattle producers. Exempt from the pilot program are feedlots, or breeding cattle that will be shipped out of state.

The objective of the Indiana’s tag pilot program is test usability, reliability, and longevity of the tags that remain in the state of Indiana over a long period of time. Initially this is to test the tag retention of Allflex 840 RFID tags.

You can view our post on tag retention, How To Improve RFID Ear Tag Retention for tagging tips.

An official list of Approved USDA Cattle Ear Tags: 840 Tags has all the approved 840 tags, which are visual tags and RFID tags.

Cattle producers must complete the 840 RFID Tag Request Form to be part of the pilot program. A premise ID is needed in order to participate, so tags can be linked to a specific location, which is the farm of origin.

840 tags can only be used in American born livestock. Under federal law, the removal of tags is unlawful once they have been tagged in livestock, because they are official U.S. Government Identification.

Why Are 840 RFID Tags being used in the pilot?

840 RFID tags provide additional reliability and integrity, because the tags use of electronic identification, as well as visual identification. The RFID tags can be scanned wirelessly with a RFID reader, and then the tag EID’s can be downloaded to livestock management software. Another reason to use RFID tags is to eliminate human error of reading tags, as well as the speed at which livestock can be identified.

The 840 RFID tags are also COOL (Country of Origin) compliant, which is another advantage of the tags.

Only the 840 RFID tags are available free with the pilot, RFID readers, software is not included, and is at the cost of the producers. RFID readers, and livestock software is not mandatory under the pilot, so producers can still apply for the free 840 tags, without an out of pocket expense.

For additional information on Indiana’s 840 RFID Tag Pilot, please visit their website. Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH)

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