Livestock ear tags were developed in 1799 under the direction of Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, for identification of Merino sheep in the flock established for King George III. Matthew Boulton designed and produced the first batch of sheep eartags, and produced subsequent batches, modified according to suggestions received from Banks. The first tags were made of tin.
Ear tags were incorporated as breed identification in the United States with the forming of the International Ohio Improved Chester Association as early as 1895, and stipulated in the Articles of Incorporation, as an association animal and breed identification, of the improved Chester White.
Although ear tags were developed in Canada as early as 1913 as a means to identify cattle when testing for tuberculosis, the significant increase of use of ear tags appeared with the outbreak of BSE in UK. Today, ear tags in a variety of designs are used throughout the world on many species of animal to ensure traceability, to help prevent theft[citation needed] and to control disease outbreaks.

The first ear tags were primarily steel with nickel plating. After World War II, larger, flag-like, plastic tags were developed in the United States. Designed to be visible from a distance, these were applied by cutting a slit in the ear and slipping the arrow-shaped head of the tag through it so that the flag would hang from the ear.
In 1953, the first two-piece, self-piercing plastic ear tag was developed and patented. This tag, which combined the easy application of metal tags with the visibility and colour options of plastic tags, also limited the transfer of blood-borne diseases between animals during the application process.

Some cattle ear tags contain chemicals to control insects such as buffalo fly etc. Metal ear tags are used to identify the date of regulation shearing of stud and show sheep. Today, a large number of manufacturers are in competition for the identification of world livestock population.

In 2004, the U.S. Government asked farmers to use EID or Electronic Identification ear tags on all their cattle. This request was part of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) spurred by the discovery of the first case of mad cow disease in the United States. Due to poor performance and concern that other people could access their confidential information, only about 30 percent of cattle producers in the United States tried using EID tags using standards based on the low frequency standards, while the UHF standards are being mandated for use in Brazil, Paraguay, and Korea .[8] The United States Department of Agriculture maintains a list of manufacturers approved to sell ear tags in the USA.

Ear tags (conventional and electronic) are used in the EU as official ID system for cattle, sheep and goat, in some cases combined with RFID devices
The International Committee for Animal Recording (ICAR) controls the issue electronic tag numbers under ISO regulation 11784.

The National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) is Australia's system for tracing cattle, sheep and goats from birth to slaughter.

In Canada, the Health of Animals Regulations require approved ear tags on all bison, cattle and sheep that leave the farm of origin, except that a bison or bovine may be moved, without a tag, from the farm of origin to a tagging site. RFID (radio frequency identification) tags are used for cattle in Canada and metal as well as RFID tags have been in use for sheep. Mandatory RFID tagging of sheep in Canada (which was previously scheduled to take effect January 1, 2013) will be deferred to some later date.

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