welfare implications of identification of cattle by ear tags - metal name tags

By examining the ears of normal beef cattle and slaughtered cows, the damage caused by ear marks used for identification was studied, and by comparing the effect of metal and polyurethane ear tags on the suspected calf in the same ear.
The metal label is more harmful to the ear than the polyurethane label, the difference is most obvious in young calves, and minor changes were found in 36 calves.
Serious changes in 6% and 9 years.
8 per cent of ears.
At the age of three weeks, the blood incidence around the metal label insertion point was high, but for the polyurethane label, only one calf showed slight blood evidence around the insertion point.
In beef cattle with metal labels, a slight reaction occurred at 40, a moderate reaction at 17, and a significant change in ears at 12.
In contrast, in ears with polyurethane labels, there are 16 ears that only show a slight reaction, and 80 polyurethane labels are considered to be very suitable, in contrast, metal labels account for 37.
More changes were observed in the ears of the cull cattle, with 23 heads.
The polyurethane label does not account for 5 of the damaged ears, but only 2.
The ears with metal labels account for nine.