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In respect to this, what is ear notching?
Ear notching is a very traditional method of identification in swine in which pigs are identified based on their birth order within a given farrowing.
Herein, why do you notch a cow's ear?
Cattle earmarks are often a variety of knife cuts in the ear as an aid to identification, but it does not necessarily constitute proof of ownership. Since the 1950s it has been more common to use ear tags to identify livestock because coloured tags are capable of conveying more information than earmarks.
Ear-notching helps identify a pig's litter and which one of the litter it is, giving each pig a unique identity number. Notches are placed in one of five locations in the pig's right ear — to show the litter number — and in one of three locations in the left ear — to show the individual pig number.