Cattle age determination
The age of cattle is determined chiefly by examination of the teeth, and less perfectly by the horn rings or the length of the tail brush; due to bang-tailing, which is the act of cutting the long hairs at the tip of the tail short to identify the animal after management practices, the last method is the least reliable. This determination is less relevant in late 20th-century and 21st-century cattle-raising, as ear tags are applied to cattle nearly from birth and upon sale which allows a check of records of when precisely a particular cattle was born, traded, their medical history, and so on.