Methodology of a dynamic test bench to test ultra-high-frequency transponder ear tags in motion

The electronic identification of sheep and goats has been obligatory in the European Union since 2010 by means of low-frequency radio-frequency identification systems. The identification of pigs and cattle is currently based on a visual ear tag, but electronic animal identification is gaining in importance. The European Union already offers the additional use of electronic identification systems for cattle in their council regulation. Besides the low-frequency radio-frequency identification, an ultra-high-frequency ear tag is a possibility for electronic animal identification. The benefits of the latter frequency band are the high range, the possibility of quasi-simultaneous reading and a high data transmission rate. First systematic laboratory tests were carried out before testing the ear tags in practice. Therefore, a dynamic test bench was built. The aim of the experiments presented in this study was to compare different ear tags under standardised conditions and select the most suitable for practical use. The influence of different parameters was tested and a standard test procedure to evaluate the quality of the transponder ear tag was developed. The experiments showed that neither the transponder holder material (polyvinyl chloride vs. extruded polystyrene) nor the reader settings examined (triggered read vs. presence sensing) had a significant influence on the average of readings of the different transponder types. The parameter number of rounds' (10 vs. 15 vs. 20) did not show a significant effect either. However, significant differences between speed (1.5 m s(-1), 3.0 m s(-1)), transponder orientation and the fourteen transponder types were found. The two most suitable transponder ear tags for cattle and pigs have been determined by comparison. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).