Ear tags - also known as sheep tags or cattle tags - were first developed in the early 1913 as a means to identify livestock, specifically cattle, when testing for tuberculosis. Early ear tags were made from metal, mostly steel with a nickel plating. The leading metal tag was made by the Ketchum Tag Company in Canada. Events Serapion of Antioch becomes Patriarch of Antioch. ... Sheep are commonly bred as livestock. ... Binomial name Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 Cattle (called cows in vernacular and contemporary usage, kine or kyne in pre-modern English, or kye as the Scots plural of cou) are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. ... It has been suggested that Antituberculant be merged into this article or section. ... The old steel cable of a colliery winding tower Steel is a metal alloy whose major component is iron, with carbon content between 0. ... General Name, Symbol, Number nickel, Ni, 28 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 10, 4, d Appearance lustrous, metallic Atomic mass 58. ...

Larger flag like plastic tags were developed in the United States after World War II. Designed to allow visibility from a distance these were applied by a knife cuttiing a slit in the ear whereby an arrow shaped head could slip through the slot and allow a large flag to hang down from the ear. Early leaders in this field were Ritchey Tag Company. This article is becoming very long. ...

In 1953 the first two piece, self piercing plastic ear tags were developed by Dalton in the United Kingdom. Offering the ease of application of metaltags but with visibility and colour options the tag was known as a Rototag given its ability to "rotate" free from fences. The main advantage of this new system was its ability to limit the transfer of blood diseases from animal to animal on application.

In 1973 the large plastic flag was combined with the two piece self piercing design to produce an eartag which could benefit farmers in more ways. Allflex in New Zealand were responsible for this development.

In 2000 a small Scottish Company ROXAN iD introduced the worlds first fully automatic small livestock tagging system. With legislation demanding the tagging of almost every sheep in developed countries farmers needed help to accomplish the task. Motto: (Latin for No one provokes me with impunity)1 Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow Official language(s) English, Gaelic, Scots2 Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen of the UK Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Jack McConnell MSP Unification    - by...

Tags in all these designs continue to be used on all species of animals throughout the world to ensure traceability and disease control. New versions of eartags include radio frequency identification devices which allow the number and identity to be read automatically without human intervention.