Swine tag orders for the 2024 State Fair of Texas / Heart of Texas Shows opens on April 1, 2024. Tag orders placed between April 1 – April 30, 2024 will be $15.00 per tag. Tags ordered May 1 - June 7, 2024 will be $18.00. Please note that tags can only be ordered by the county validation chair.
New: The maximum amount that a county can charge for a tag over the original cost is $5.00.
Tags ordered in April will begin shipping during the second week of June 2024. These tags will be shipped from DataMars, and the shipment will also contain the newly revised hair envelope which inlcudes the ear notch drawing. All other documents can be found and downloaded at https://www.texasffa.org/swine-validation. Tags ordered after May 1, 2024 will be shipped from the Texas FFA office on or after June 1, 2024.
Validation of 2024 barrows and gilts showing at the 2024 State Fair of Texas / Heart of Texas must occur within the presence of the swine validation committee between June 1 and June 30, 2024. Under no circumstances should tags be handed out.
All materials and any unpaid orders must be postmarked by July 15, 2024 to the Austin office. To ensure timely receipt and posting of your payment, please DO NOT include your payment in your validation materials box.
VALIDATION SCHEDULING DEADLINE: April 15TH - make sure to email your forms to tammy@texasffa.org. If you haven't done so already, make sure to get your form emailed to Tammy ASAP!
***IMPORTANT*** County validation chairs are highly encouraged to print the order invoice immediately after placing an order and submit for payment. This will prevent the county account from being blocked for the next ordering cycle.
Please see the chart below in the FAQ section regarding validation/tagging requirements for the 2024 State Fair of Texas / Heart of Texas Shows.
The 2024 State Fair of Texas / Heart of Texas Stock Shows Validation Checklist and all remaining documents have been updated. You can find them at the bottom of this page. Please make sure you are using the current version of the forms, and that all materials are complete and included when mailing in your validation materials.
Scroll down to the bottom of this page to review the Swine Validation Workshop presentation and watch videos covering the validation process and validation paperwork presented at the 2022 and 2023 ATAT Conference!***
2024 Texas Spring Major Livestock Show tag orders begin April 1, 2024. To submit your orders, please visit http://validate.texasffa.org/ .
County Validation Chairs Please Note: Your county swine validation account balance must be in good standing, or you will not be able to order 2024 State Fair of Texas / heart of Texas Livestock Show tags. Please make sure all balances for previous orders are paid prior to the April 1, 2024 opening date.
County validation chairs will need their county password to login to the system to place orders, print forms, submit tag/ear notch corrections and complete the student tag information. If you do not know your county's login password, please contact Tammy Glascock (tammy@texasffa.org)).
The swine validation system will close July 15, 2024 for all data input. After that date, all changes to the online tag assignment system will be done through the State Swine Validation Coordinator (tammy@texasffa.org). All forms contain instructions regarding this change.
The gilt registration paper upload system http://validate.texasffa.org/gilt will close on July 15, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. All registered gilt information and paper upload must be completed by the deadline. NO EXCEPTIONS! Please note that state validation tag numbers are required in order to input required information into the data system for the registered/purebred gilts.
2024 State Fair of Texas / Heart of Texas Livestock Show Validation Process Information
Only the Swine Validation Chairman from each county may order tags.
COST: April 1 - April 30, 2024 $15.00 each
May 1 - June 7, 2024 $18.00 each
***All orders will ship 2-3 day priority mail.***
New: The maximum amount that a county can charge for a tag over the original cost is $5.00.
ORDERS/SHIPPING: Address on order form should be SHIPPING address, please NO PO BOX addresses - we are not able to verify delivery to PO Boxes other than received at the post office. Orders received in September will ship the second week of October. Orders received in October/November will ship by the end of the second week of November- please keep this in mind when scheduling your validation dates!
VALIDATION: All official validation and tagging should occur on or before 11:59 p.m. June 30, 2024 in the presence of the County Swine Validation Committee. Under no circumstances should tags be handed out for offsite tagging.