YTEX 1-piece applicator

Details

One-piece tags need their own tool. There is no button to seat, so the applicator simply grips the tag, drives the self-piercing tip through the ear and releases. That simplicity is the whole appeal on a cold morning when you are tagging a wet calf in the straw with the cow circling. The pin flips out of the way for loading, which is a small thing until you have tried to thread a tag onto a fixed pin wearing chopper mitts. Better still, a spare replacement pin lives inside the handle, so the day you bend one you are not driving to town or writing off the afternoon. The frame is built heavy enough to take the abuse a working chute hands out. Use it with Y-Tags one-piece calf, cow and feedlot tags. It will not apply two-piece All American tags, so if you run both systems you need both tools. Keep the jaw clean, keep the pin straight, and store it somewhere it will not get stepped on between calving seasons.