Talk:Earmark (agriculture)

Need for References

You ask for references to earmarking: that is very hard to do. Few people have ever bothered to make written authoritative and studied references to earmarking because it was an ancient practice when people started to write. It was the sort of thing that farmers did and passed from father to son in every country where animal husbandry was practised.

In cases where earmarking was supported by legislation those legal words have long been revoked. Yet ear marks continue to be used in such as hobby farming for some of the original reasons, that it was quick, easy to do and cheap!

I hesitate to remove the References request because I will continue to look for such, but I have too few resources out in the country areas of Australia to do that. Lin (talk) 06:12, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

I have an original catalogue from 1899 for livestock Ear Markers, mfg. by Wilcox and Harvey Mfg. Co. Chicago Il. they are made of aluminum and they call their brand " Stay There" ear markers. the article mentions 1950's as time when ear tags began to be used. The company seems to be out of business or was sold/merged. I'm researching that now, but they clearly offered these in 1899 and from the list of testimonials printed on the last two pages they were widely used in the US and Canada at that time. Hughstime (talk) 22:28, 21 January 2012 (UTC)