Changes to animal identification As members begin to register their calves born in Spring 2021, it is timely to remind members advised of two important changes that apply to the identification of animals that were born from January 1st, 2021 onwards.
Changes to Animal IDs The unique animal ID assigned to each animal recorded with Angus Australia consists of the breeders herd identifier, a breeding year letter and an animal number, e.g. ABCS1, While this animal ID format has served the Angus breed well for many years, it has a major shortcoming being the duplication of animal IDs every 24 years. For example, ABCS1 (birth year 1973), ABCS1 (birth year 1997) and ABCS1 (birth year 2021). This shortcoming requires Angus Australia to add a suffix to the animal ID for animals born greater than 24 years ago (e.g. ABCR1+72, ABCR1+96), which causes considerable problems in circumstances where the original animal ID has previously been recorded in other databases. For example, in herd recording software programs managed by individual members, or when animals have been recorded with overseas Breed Societies. To remove the duplication of animal IDs, the unique animal ID assigned to animals with a birth date of 1/1/2021 onwards will be changed to consist of the breeders herd identifier, a two character year of birth, a breeding year letter and an animal number. WA ANGUS NEWS December 2021
That is, rather than ABCS1, the animal ID assigned will be ABC21S1. The change will only apply to the ID of animals born from 1/1/2021 onwards. No change will be made retrospectively to the ID of animals already recorded with Angus Australia, or who are recorded in the future but are born prior to 1/1/2021. Further, the change in format only applies to the animal ID assigned by Angus Australia, and does not require any change to the current practice of displaying only the year letter and number (e.g. R1) when tagging, tattooing or branding animals. The change to the animal ID format for animals born from 1/1/2021 onwards will ensure the animal ID assigned to animals is indeed unique, and will remove the current difficulties and inconvenience to Angus Australia, members and other organisation that result from the need to add a suffix to the IDs of historic animals that are born more than 24 years ago.
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