Ear tag be deferred to some later date. Pigs, cattle and sheep are frequently earmarked with pliers that notch registered owner and/or age marks into the ear. Mares on large horse breeding farms have a plastic tag attached to a neck strap for identification; which preserves their ears free of notches. Dairy cows are sometimes identified with ratchet fastened plastic anklets fitted on the pastern for ready inspection during milking; however NLIS requirements apply to cattle - including both dairy and beef animals. More commonly coloured electrical tape is used as short term ankle identifiers for dairy animals to identify when one
Jakob Smits married Malvina Dedeyn, the daughter of a Brussels lawyer, who is disinherited because of this marriage. Smits lived in poverty while he worked tirelessly for what he calls "my simple work, symbolic, poetic and real". In 1897, he received a gold medal for his exhibitions of large water-colour paintings on a gold background in Munich and Dresden. He also painted many portraits, especially of Malvina and of their children Boby, Marguerite and Kobe. In 1899 destiny struck: in a few days he lost his daughter Alice and his wife. In 1901, Smits married Josine Van Cauteren. In the same year