Animal ear tag and identification system

Claim 1

An ear tag assembly for mounting on the ear of a bovine-type animal or the like having an upper ear portion, a rear end portion, and a front ear portion with a central pocket beneath said upper ear portion between said front ear portion and said rear ear portion, and the assembly comprising: a one-piece tag retaining member made of molded plastic material, with a generally vertically extending central slot means therein, adapted to be located in the central pocket of the animal ear in a substantially horizontal attitude opposite a generally vertically extending slit in the upper ear portion of the animal ear; a one-piece identification member made of flexible plastic material with an enlarged identification portion located in front of the animal ear, in downwardly generally vertically extending relationship to the upper ear portion, an intermediate portion of reduced width relative to said identification portion and located adjacent the upper ear portion and the front ear portion; a generally vertically downwardly extending strap portion of reduced width relative to said intermediate portion extending through the generally vertically extending slit in the animal ear and the generally vertically extending central slot means in said one-piece tag retaining member, and a generally vertically downwardly extending head portion mounted in abutting engagement with a generally horizontally extending portion of said one-piece tag retaining member; said retaining member comprising: a base portion having a thickness such as to be relatively inflexible; a pair of relatively thin flexible flange portions located on opposite sides of said central slot means for flexible outward movement to enable passage of said head portion therethrough in one direction and flexible inward movement after passage of said head portion therethrough to thereafter prevent passage therethrough in the opposite direction; and blade attachment slot means in said head portion and said strap portion for releasable attachment to a portion of a cutting blade during forward movement of the cutting blade while mounting of the ear tag assembly on an animal ear and for enabling said head portion to be passed through a slit in the animal ear and through said central slot means in said retaining member with the cutting blade and for enabling the cutting blade to be detached from said head portion during rearward movement of the cutting blade; said blade attachment slot means comprising a generally retangular-shape slot having a rear wall portion in said strap portion and a front wall portion in said head portion and rearwardly facing upper and lower openings between said head portion and said strap portion.