Livestock Identification > Increase Your Profit

Increase Your Profit

Birth To Pork Identification and Tracking starts with a Ketchum 50D Tattoo! Your Source for Birth-To-Plate Traceability Products.

Ketchum 50D Ear Tattooers

Commercial Pig Lifetime Herd Management ID Plus Pig Tracking Built In

Why tattoo commercial pigs?

Pig management software provides analysis of key production and profit factors provided every pig is identified from birth and the identity is entered into the software. Producers rely on their management systems to reduce per unit cost and variability and increase profit.

Pig tracking from birth to pork is important. Ketchum tattoos and your herd management software provide automatic tracking with no additional investment in time or money.

Ketchum tattooers and permanent tattoo ink give lifetime identification for pennies per pig without the ID loss and chewed, torn or damaged ears associated with tags and notching.

Site to site to packer Pig Tracking is easy too!

When pigs are to be moved from one location to another load them into trucks with their pen mates and segregated from other pens of pigs on the trucks.

These pen lots are maintained when the pigs are unloaded at the new site.

The data on the arriving pigs is forwarded electronically to the recipient site and includes the pen identity in which the individual pigs are located.

It is unnecessary for the new site staff to read more than one tattoo to check that they have matched the old pen number with the new one.

The new site continues the tracking of individual pig information as was done at the original site. If pigs are later commingled, an entry is made in the computer that simply notes e.g. that all pigs that were in pens X and Y have been relocated to pen Z. No time is spent checking pig identities. If certain pigs are segregated out from a group their tattoos are read and their new location is entered into the computer. Only the identities of the smallest segregated group are read in order to minimize data entry time.

As pigs depart for the abattoir, they may be Ketchum shoulder tattooed with the premise number as the pigs are loaded into trucks by segregated pen lots.

As the pigs leave the shipping site and before the pigs arrive at the abattoir, the shipping site sends an email to the abattoir to advise the abattoir the pen lot numbers, the identity of the individual pigs contained therein and all the data gathered about those pigs from birth to the time of loading onto the truck.

At the abattoir the pigs are unloaded maintaining the same pen lots as they were loaded.

Pigs are maintained in pen lots through to a railed carcass. As the Ketchum ear and slap tattoo are easily read after slaughter, individual pig identification is easily retained, at least to post mortem health inspection and quality grading.

Ketchum shoulder tattooed premise numbers are key entered on high speed kill lines as pig carcasses traverse the carcass scales. Carcass quality data is also entered to generate a cumulative payment to the premise owner for each day’s kill.

At birth, using one row of a two-row Model 50D or 101 ear tattooer for, up to, an 8 character premise number and the other row for the individual pig ID, provides unique lifetime tracking information on the animal and carcass.

The above described processes readily lend themselves to further in-abattoir tracking of pork.

When to tattoo pigs?

Tattooing is STEP 1 in the processing routine of new born pigs. Every pig is tattooed at birth or a few days thereafter. New born pigs are calm and easy too work with, especially at birth.

Why Ketchum tattooers and tattoo ink are preferred?

Number changes, regardless of which row, are fast and easy - Flip open the lever lock - remove and replace only the character that needs to be changed - close the lever lock - tattoo!

The Ketchum 50D size is perfect for tattooing at birth and to 3 days of age to give a very legible tattoo in the mature animal.

Tracking pigs is easy with the Ketchum 50D 2 row tattooer. Each row has up to 6, 7 or 8 characters. A Premise ID in one row and pig ID in the other makes a unique pig identification.

The Ketchum 101 size is ideal for tattooing 4 day old to 21 day old pigs, but, is also used to tattoo one day old pigs.

High quality, Ketchum tattooers, last for generations. Ketchum tattoo ink is regarded, by users around the world, as the best there is. Ketchum tattoo ink gives lifetime-to-pork carcass identification for herd management and pig-to-pork tracking.

How to use tattoo ID for herd management?

As a litter of pigs moves to a group pen, enter this activity into the computer without reading the tattoos of those pigs. Similarly, as pens of pigs are combined with other pens of pigs, record the move in the computer. No time is spent looking at the identification of the pigs.

Read tattoos only of the exceptional pigs (the few runts or those that are moved for fostering, the few that are sick and are treated, the few that die, etc.). Enter their identity, the exceptional circumstance, and the pen to which they were moved into the computer.

Use the large volume of data that automatically accumulates to search for, pin point and eliminate inefficiencies in the production system to increase the profit margin. The system works most effectively when every pig is tattooed at birth with an individual "number".

Custom Designed Pliers And Tattoo Characters Are Our Specialty

(See also Ketchum Ear Tattoo Equipment)

For more information on Ketchum Livestock or to request your FREE CATALOGUE please fill out a contact form or contact us by;

Email: ketchum@sympatico.ca
Phone: 613-342-8455
Fax: 613-342-7550