Please see the statement below issued by the Cattle Identification Policy Advisor:
We have recently become aware of a new herd monitoring system CowManager which is being marketed in Great Britain by World Wide Sire UK www.wwsires.co.uk/cow-manager/. The device has been designed to be attached to a cattle ear tag. It was not tested as part of the approval process for any of the Official tags available at present and therefore attaching it to an Official tag would be considered a modification which is not permitted.
We have spoken to the company concerned and they explained to their knowledge that the majority of these devices are being attached to parlour/management style tags. We have heard however, that some farmers are attaching them to Official secondary tags which, as outlined above, is prohibited.
The company will contact all keepers to which they have sold this device already to inform them that attaching it to an Official Tag is an offence under cattle identification legislation. For further information or any queries please get in touch at office@rabdf.co.uk