If you have larger batches of cattle coming onto your farm, you’ll need to record information like:

• Official ID number, date of birth, breed, sex
• “On” movement date (and report this to the BCMS Cattle Tracing System)

That amounts to quite a bit of data to enter into your farm software package. One way to make cattle data entry faster and more accurate is to consider using a barcode scanner that will read the long barcode that’s located at the bottom of the passport document. This contains the animal’s BCMS ear tag number, breed, sex and date of birth.

The barcode reader acts as a sort of keyboard input device and lets you add text to a data field in a farm software package. Barcode readers are inexpensive and aren’t difficult to set up and use.  A barcode reader can connect to your PC via the usual USB port – just the same as your printer or mouse. Your PC will recognise the scanner as a new device and install it.

There are several types of handheld barcode scanner that are appropriate for use in the farm office.  A laser scanner uses an laser beam that moves back and forth across the barcode. Laser scanners are very accurate, and Orchid have always recommended these, particularly because they cope better with barcodes that have become a little smudged during the life of the cattle passport.

A second type of scanner is a CCD scanner which reads a barcode by measuring light intensity via a series of small sensors. CCD scanners are generally more rugged than laser scanners as they have no moving parts, but don’t always read cattle passport barcodes as efficiently as laser scanners.

Most of the time, you can start scanning cattle passports “out of the box” but occasionally you may need to configure the reader’s settings as a once only operation. Configuring a barcode reader is straightforward and usually involves scanning a barcode  that’s provided with the manufacturer’s instructions. The configuration settings determine how the barcode is interpreted and presented within the farm software that you are using.

To see a demonstration of a barcode scanner reading cattle passports, have a look at the following video and give us a call on 01536 443300.