The United States Department of Agriculture has announced that cattle and Bison will be required to have electronic ID tags.
This rule applies to newly applied cattle and bison, which will now need both visual and electronic tags.
The new rule will be taking effect on November 5th, later this year.
However, cattle tagged with visual-only tags before the November 5th date do not need to be retagged unless they lose their ID.
The USDA has said the purpose of this rule is to improve livestock traceability along with more accurate and precise identification and faster record searches during disease outbreaks.
As of right now, the only tags that meet the new requirements laid out by the USDA are 840 RFID tags.
More information on the new rule and 840 RFID tags can be found online at federalregister.gov.
