Patent ID: 7347161

Claim:
A method for tracking animals destined for commercial food production which includes a time period in which groups of animals are fed in pens in feedlots prior to shipment from the feedlot for processing into food products, comprising: entering into the computer system identification data for an animal from an electronic identification device for the animal thereby enabling the computer system to identify each animal and distinguish it from every other animal in a group; entering into a computer system data relating to individual animals that have been commingled by mixing from different groups of animals and correlating the data with the identification of the individual animals in the computer system; entering into the computer system location data for identified individual animals for locations occupied by the identified animals; correlating in the computer system the location data for each animal with its identification; enabling a user to review a record of the location data for the identified animals; determining from data in the computer system locations of an initially identified animal; identifying in the computer system a subsequently identified animal which shared a location with the initially identified animal; and recycling the identification devices.