I see the original Mr cattle tags has retired from Mullinahone Co-op. Way back in the day, Co Offaly cattle farmer Liam Egan agreed to work one day per week with the Tipperary Co-op – but was soon appointed full-time manager of its Eurotags division and joined the co-op board.

His understanding of farming made Egan ideal for dealing one to one with thousands of cattle farmers sorting out all kinds of issues relating to tags for both cattle and sheep.

His diplomacy was called into use dealing closely with the Department of Agriculture which has kept the tightest control it can on the cattle identification – given it’s a trust issue for consumers.

Over 20 years he helped steer through electronic tagging of sheep, tissue tagging of cattle for BVD and increasingly, electronic tagging of cattle. At this stage it’s fair to say no man or woman in the country knows more about cattle ears than the Birr farmer.