As summer and county fair time gets closer, 4-H and FFA’ers looking to compete in certain livestock events have some things they need to do to be prepared.

Adair County Iowa State University Extension and Outreach County Youth Coordinator Caroline Savage says that starting in the first week of March, they will have swine tags and DNA punches available. She tells Raccoon Valley Radio why it’s important to make sure the animals can be identified.

“So all animals are required to be tagged in order to go to county fair, as well as state. So that’s the purpose of tagging them with a number. They have an E-ID, a scannable number. For our swine, they also need to have their ear notches, so that is a requirement that you’ll enter into 4H Online when you ID those swine. As far as the DNA punches, that is for state fair, just to be sure that the animal you’re identifying is in fact the one that you take to (the) fair.”

Savage mentions that swine tags are $3, and if individuals want to do a DNA punch as well, it is an additional $8. For those that may need a puncher to get the tags in their swine’s ears, there will be some available to be borrowed from the office.