In re Baker, 465 B.R. 359 (Bankr. N.D. N.Y. 2012)

(Chapter 7 case involving dairy operation; defendant sold cows to debtor and held perfected security interest in cows that debtor sold pre-petition and received $27,764.20 for net proceeds of sale of 22 cows; defendant filed claim in debtor’s bankruptcy case for $55,787.54 representing amount of unpaid balance owed debtor; at time of sale to debtor, defendant delivered Certificate of Registration for each cow containing  name of cow, identification of defendant as former owner, handwritten vaccination number, sketch of cow showing markings and ear tag i.d. number; at time of sale by debtor, some ear tags missing; bankruptcy trustee claims that collateral description in UCC-1 misleading because ear tags were used in description and were missing at time of sale such that security interest ineffective; question of first impression as to how to perfect security interest in specific cows; court held that custom in farming industry relevant; cows routinely lose ear tags,  are not fungible and are identifiable by numerous methods; while ear tag identification contained errors, name of each cow included in description; defendant’s UCC-1 effective irrespective of erroneous or outdated ear tag designations).