Id & Trace slap markers are particularly suitable for animals as young as 10 weeks, as they guarantee good pin-to-skin transmission of tattoo paste with minimal stress to the pig. They do this by virtue of their light handles and sharp, narrow section steel character-plate pins.
Character size used at 10 weeks was 10mm in height, and this was found to have grown to a character height of 15mm by slaughter weight, while still being perfectly legible. Usefully, this also conformed to existing requests by MLC inspectors to improve legibility.
At the same time as conducting its own UK trials, we were also asked to supply tattooing equipment to DANI and MAFF for them to carry out their own testing, proving that the equipment surpassed expectations.
After these trials, we concluded that, provided characters are fairly condensed, two rows of five characters is possible, while maintaining legibility from 10 weeks to the point of slaughter.