In a remarkable application of data tagging technology, a Brazilian company has developed an electronic ear tag for cattle.

Developed by Agroflex, a Porto Alegre-based company, the tag takes the form of a data storage chip and aerial, housed inside a weatherproof plastic disk. Using mobile phone technology, the rancher can easily download electronic data held elsewhere onto the tag, or interrogate it for existing information.

According to the Agroflex, by physically pairing the animal with its records, the technology considerably reduces the risk of cattle being wrongly identified, while also providing a means of data storage that can be remotely accessed at any time.