Beef with chips – electronic data tag launched for cattle

22/10/2001

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.