The Manitoba Pork Council said in a notice to producers Wednesday that the Canadian Pork Council will apply a 10 per cent increase to the prices of PigTrace ear tags and accessories, effective Dec. 15.

Table: PigTrace ear tag price list effective Dec. 15, 2023, including shipping; taxes extra.

As for accessories available from the program, the universal tag applicator will be priced at $30.04; the Retract-o-matic tag applicator, $80.99; a replacement tag pin, $3.50; and a permanent marker, $5.78.

Current pricing will be valid for orders placed and paid by Dec. 14 at 11:59 p.m. ET, the pork council said Wednesday.

The Manitoba council said the CPC “has incurred increased costs for the manufacture and distribution” of the ear tags throughout 2023. “These costs have unfortunately become unsustainable and must be passed on to customers.”

Hog producers can order tags online via their PigTrace accounts, by phone at 1-866-300-1825, by email or by contacting provincial pork offices in their area.

Reporting to PigTrace has been mandatory since 2014 for all people and organizations taking part in movement of pigs. The tag price was last raised in 2019.

“Increased risk from foreign animal diseases such as African swine fever make our traceability program a critical piece of preparedness and zoning activities,” the Manitoba council said Wednesday, adding the use of PigTrace tags for herd management is also encouraged. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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However, many other sheep farms, often smaller, are not yet using technology to reduce labour, and increase and improve their management information.

That’s why the Large Flock Operators group featured a session on sorting and data management technology at its field day at the Steele farm recently.

Why it matters: Sheep farms continue to be small, and often part time, despite the great potential in the market for Ontario lamb. Technology, such as auto sorting and RFID can help to make management of growing flocks easier.

Investing in technology is a significant choice for sheep farmers, due to the low margins of small ruminant meat production. But the options are growing — from simple tag readers, to full auto sorting and in-barn data management systems.

Steele uses most of these tools. In fact, he has pushed companies to develop the tools he needs and his farm has been a testing ground for them.

“I have more EID (electronic identification) reader solutions than my wife thinks I need,” he said during the field day. But he likens having multiple options to having different wrenches — sometimes you need an adjustable wrench, sometimes you need a socket, he said. Sometimes you want to do a large amount of flock management and data collection, but other times you just want to identify a couple of lambs. They can require different readers.

Several levels of technology

Sheep farmers have access to three different levels of technology they can use to manage data and sorting with their flocks.

The simplest option is a wand or a unit that can identify a sheep quickly using its RFID tag. It saves having to wrestle a sheep to check its tag. Farmers can then manually decide what to do with that sheep, based on the information in the wand reader.

Wand readers, such as those from Tru-Test, can hold 30,000 tag records, said Jason Williams of Tru-Test, during a demonstration.

Wand readers start at about $1,000 and go up from there. Gallagher and Agrident also showcased wand readers at the field day.

Agrident has a smaller, compact reader called its APR line, which needs closer proximity than larger readers before it works. But it is less expensive and Steele says it is hardy — his survived a mauling by a guardian dog after the reader was left in a pen.

He also likes his wand reader, which he is new to using, although he lamented it doesn’t make lightsaber sounds when you wave it.

A second level of reader is more robust, has a stronger antenna and greater data management options.

The biggest leap is to a full weighing and sorting (or drafting) system that uses a scale head that measures large amounts of data and is able to make the sorting system work based on RFID tag selection per sheep.

There were several such systems demonstrated at the field day.

The Steeles use a Prattley sorter, with Agrident RFID readers. Williams showed a Tru-Test scale head system on Steele’s set up to sort ewes by several criteria after they were weighed going through this system. It can be set up to work automatically, with air pressure used to open gates so ewes can be weighed to determine breeding readiness or for culling purposes. Simpler systems can be used to sort market lambs that weigh enough to go to market.

The Tru-Test system can sort up to 10 different pens.

A 49.5 kilogram ewe moved quickly through the Gallagher sorter as Tim Prior of Brussels Agri-Services showed the popular line up and scale head. Recording information means being able to go back in history and view previous sorts, weights, vaccination and events such as insecticide treatments.

Myrna Huber, of Huber Ag Equipment in Alberta demonstrated the Combi Clamp from Ritchie, a United Kingdom company. It gives producers a less expensive option in which the platform is raised for reduced stress for the handler and the livestock. The system involves the user holding the sheep with their weight as they scan, drench, deworm, tag or pregnancy-check the animals.

The Combi Clamp system can also have an RFID reader added — in this case a wand was simply put beside the panel — and also a data recorder.

Mix and match

There is a lot of standardization in the RFID reader world, which means systems can be mixed and matched based on upgrading requirements, or needed replacement.

For example the Tru-Test scale head can be used on most other load cells on the market with a bit of customization. Data exported from most of the readers is either as an Excel file or a CSV file — a common database format.

That also means that when it comes to data management, most common flock management software programs can work with most scale, sorter and reader systems.

That was the case with the systems demonstrated at the Large Flock Operator day.

AgInsights, formerly known as BIO, an Ontario company that offers cattle and sheep software, is compatible with most of the readers and data systems.

Jasper Munro showed the company’s mobile and web-based software. It allows farmers to look up sheep records and add information into the system wherever they are. Its limitation is that it doesn’t sync chute-side. Data from a reader or scale head can be exported to the system, however.

SIGA Ruminant has similar options, said Christine McGugan. Managing data means you can analyze your flock, including for inbreeding, she said. SIGA also has a mobile option for its software.

Managing a data system on a sheep farm isn’t the same as managing tractors or other equipment.

“You can’t jimmy it if it doesn’t work,” said Steele. That means software support must be available, and you might just have to find alternatives if you are trying to work with sheep the day the software doesn’t respond. That’s also why Steele has different RFID reader options. A simpler solution can sometimes save the day.

Lamb price has been solid for several years and that’s creating more interest in sheep production, as show by the 231 people who attended the LFO field day.

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Allflex, whose parent firm the Allflex Group rebranded in February under the name Antelliq, announced Aug. 21 it has bought Agrident for an undisclosed sum.

Agrident, set up in 1997 and based at Barsinghausen, about 20 km west of Hanover, makes and sells readers worldwide for farm animal management and traceability systems.

Agrident RFID readers approved by the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency as of last October include the company’s AWR100, AIR100 and AIR200 handheld models and its ASR600 and ASR700 stationary panel readers. Allflex already has six handheld RFID reader models on the CCIA approved list.

Agrident’s fixed and mobile reader systems offer “advanced data capture features for management and traceability” and have “a worldwide reputation for excellence and superior performance,” Allflex said in a release.

“Agrident’s RFID readers and associated technologies are a natural expansion of our smart data products and services, enhancing our capabilities in electronic animal identification and data capture,” Antelliq chief operating officer Brian Bolton said in the same release. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The private equity investor has asked investment advisory boutique Evercore to organise an auction for the company, which is expected to start by mid-November when first information packages to likely bidders will be sent out, the people added.

Aiming to benefit from high valuations for technology companies, Columna is expected to shop the asset to BC Partners — which owns Datamars rival Allflex — as well as other investors such as Advent, KKR, CVC, Cinven, HgCapital and Montagu.

Columna Capital was not immediately available, while Evercore declined to comment.

Datamars makes tags containing electronically stored information, so-called radio-frequency identification (RFID) microchips, which can be used to automatically identify animals and goods. It also makes the microchip scanners that farmers, veterinarians and animal control officers use to monitor livestock or pets.

The company, whose brands include Z Tags and Temple Tag, also makes conventional plastic tags for the livestock market as well as RFID tags for the pet sector.

Datamars — which took over New Zealand-based Zee Tags, the maker of Z Tags, in 2014 — has revenue of about US$100 million, according to Columna’s website.

According to people close to the situation, Datamars’ annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) stand at 20-30 million francs and potential bidders may value the company at up to 15 times that.

Datamars, in which Columna bought a minority interest in 2011 before taking complete control in 2014, employs more than 800 people worldwide.

— Reporting for Reuters by Arno Schuetze. Includes files from AGCanada.com Network staff.

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The purchase was overseen by PSP’s new team in London, led by Simon Marc, and is likely to be followed by further deals in Europe as PSP looks to increase its presence in Europe’s private equity market after having opened an office in London last year.

“We do have an increased emphasis on Europe,” said Guthrie Stewart, global head of private investments at PSP, which has $112 billion of assets under management.

Stewart said that, although PSP has significant infrastructure investments in the region, operating five airports in Europe and investing in the rail and ports sectors in the U.K., it was under-allocated in the private equity space.

“There’s been a conscious effort to increase our presence in Europe and a key initiative to do that is building out a team in London. That team led this effort together with resources for Montreal,” Stewart said in an interview.

Allflex grew from being a low-tech maker of plastic ear tags for cows to a world leader in high-tech labelling after the European Union tightened food traceability rules in 1998 in the wake of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) crisis.

Subsequent crises, including a 2001 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Britain, led to tighter supervision of how livestock is sourced and tracked in Europe, North America and Australasia.

“Allflex is a high-quality, fast-growing industry leader with a unique market position,” Stewart said in a release.

The company’s product lines today include radio‐frequency identification (RFID) and visual ear tags, tissue sampling devices, RFID implants, monitoring devices, milk meters and other farm equipment.

Electronic animal identification is increasingly regulated, which makes it harder for new players to start a business from scratch, leaving established operators such as Allflex with strong growth prospects.

BC Partners bought the Allflex business, based in Vitre, France, from private equity rival Electra Partners for US$1.3 billion in 2013. The British equity firm remains Allflex’s controlling shareholder.

Financial details of the transaction, including the percentage of Montreal-based PSP’s stake, were not disclosed.

PSP, short for the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, manages pension funds for members of the federal public service including the Canadian Forces and RCMP.

— Reporting for Reuters by Matt Scuffham. Includes files from AGCanada.com Network staff.

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