Tag Day, a county fair tradition for area farmers and fair attendees, is the day people who show animals at the Huntingdon County Fair complete their registration. It takes place the first Saturday of May from 8:30 AM – noon. Junior Livestock Committee members place specific species tags in the animal’s ears.
Ms. Tiffany Hoy, Ag advisor for Tyrone Area High School, has been involved in agriculture education for 26 years, serves on the livestock committee and this year assisted with the market goats. She also checked to make sure her Tyrone FFA students arrived and checked their animals for growth and general health.
“Tag day is where you have dairy beef, hogs, sheep, and goats. When they tag them they are approved to show at the Huntingdon County fair because we vaccinate them and they are officially registered with the Junior Livestock Committee,” Hoy said.
Vaccinations are also administered to all dairy beef animals to ensure the health of the animals before and during the fair. If animals are not tagged they will not be able to be shown at the fair.
Hoy said, “There is no reason you couldn’t get tagged unless no animal is present or is showing signs of disease that cannot be treated.”
She also said that this was her first year doing tag day and she was just going with the flow.
Lizzy Conrad has lived on a farm for 15 years is an active member in FFA and 4-H. Conrad is a freshman at Tyrone Area School District and shows along with her brother David and her older sister Alison. Conrad shows dairy beef and says she does not enjoy sitting in a long line.
Conrad said, “I see people [at tag day] that I haven’t seen in a while.”
An ear tag is a plastic or metal object used for identification of domestic livestock. There are four tags a flag-shaped, button, plastic clip ear, and a metal ear tag. Different fairs use different tags but all have a number on them to identify them.
Both Hoy and Conrad said that the tags do not cost anything to the students showing, the Junior Livestock Committee budgets for them each year.
For more information the Huntingdon County Fair has a website that can be accessed by clicking here.
