HerdWhistle is now a supplier of UHF RFID ear tags for the cattle industry, boasting extra long read range and high retention. We produce thousands of tags with custom laser printing, durable design, inhouse quality control, and custom encoding — a one stop shop for cattle producers across North America.
HerdWhistle tags are designed with the RFID chip encased in the plastic mould for better retention in the rough cattle environments. The read range is one of the best in the industry with more than 30 ft on typical RFID antenna and up to 115 ft when using a highly directional antenna.
This new venture began while developing our proprietary RFID livestock monitoring system, HerdWhistle Feedlot ™. The system monitors cattle feeding and drinking behaviors 24/7 through RFID antennas that pick up UHF cattle ear tags. The two products go hand in hand with HerdWhistle Feedlot ™ bringing us new ear tag customers and the ear tags opening the doors to new feedlot prospects.
As we’ve worked alongside feedlots and industry experts, a growing demand for RFID technology was revealed. The technology has enormous potential to create efficiencies on the farm, but access to dependable and value-adding solutions has been limited.
Cattle producers are already familiar with low-frequency (LF) RFID ear tags as they are required for all cattle in Canada. Lately the movement in Canada, US, and abroad has been towards ultra-high-frequency (UHF) RFID ear tags. Scotland is leading the way by making UHF tags mandatory by 2024.
LF was a great starting point for RFID technology in the industry. It moved record keeping towards digital, but there are limitations. The tags can only be read from a few inches away and are very slow to read. UHF ear tags, on the other hand, have an average read range of up to 20 feet and can read around 500 tags per second — much more suited to managing large herds of cattle.
As the movement shifted to UHF, HerdWhistle noticed a gap in the cattle ear tag market. There was very little selection of UHF RFID ear tags. LF RFID and simple visual (non-RFID) tags were available everywhere in all shapes and sizes. But none of the top ear tag suppliers had much to offer in terms of a quality UHF tag. HerdWhistle has worked to fill that gap and supply one of the best UHF RFID ear tags on the market.
HerdWhistle will continue to expand our tag operations, both through customers to our HerdWhistle Feedlot ™ system and other cattle producers across North America.
