Influence of different setups of a dynamic test bench on the readability of UHF-transponders

The identification of pigs and cattle is currently based on a normal visual ear tag, but electronic animal identification is gaining in importance. The electronic identification of sheep and goats has been obligatory in the European Union since 2012. It is a question of time until this identification system becomes obligatory in other animal species, such as cattle and pigs. One possibility of electronic animal identification is an ultra-high-frequency (UHF) ear tag. The benefits of this frequency band are the high range, the possibility of simultaneous reading and a high data transmission rate. First systematic laboratory tests will be carried out before testing these UHF ear tags in practice. Therefore, a dynamic test bench was built. The aim of the experiments with this test bench was to compare different UHF ear tags under standardised conditions and select the most suitable for practical use. This test bench had a variety of settings, such as velocity, reader settings, transponder orientation, number of rounds, and material of the transponder holder. The influence of these parameters was to be tested and the development of one method to evaluate the quality of the transponder was sought. The experiments showed that the number of rounds (10 vs. 15 vs. 20) had no significant influence on the average readings per round of the different transponder types. Differences between the transponder holders (polyvinyl chloride vs. extruded polystyrene) were shown for on transponder type, whereas significant difference between the velocities (1.5 m s, 3.0 m s) was determined for all transponder types.