Ear tags

[Mona Howard]

The flock is getting too big to remember who belongs to who....can anyone suggest which ear tags they like and why? Thanks. Mona

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

The flock is getting too big to remember who belongs to who

Congratulations! That's a good problem, right?

 

I have two systems going currently - I guess I'll have to add a third sometime soon when they figure out what they'll want to do for the national animal ID program.

 

I have the government ear tags - the scrapie 2X tags. For flock identification I use tatoos. You can do it right after birth and it never falls out, gets lost, snags on anything, and it's legible for the life of the animal. Assuming you put the numbers in the tool right - something I have trouble with and end up with number 106 instead of 601.

 

The down side is that you have to catch the critter to read it - but there are numbers on the scrapie tags that I use for external id. The tatoo numbers have more to do with permanent records so I never have "orphans" in the records if we have a wave of tag failures.

[L and M Ranch]

Mona,

I like fairly large, easy to read tags. I pasture lamb range ewes and need to be able to read them from a distance. I heard from a lot of people that calf tags wouldn't work in sheep because they'd get snagged and torn out to easily. I'm sure it's different in different parts of the country, but we've had NO trouble with that. We have lots of buck brush, plum thicks, cedar trees and such that they could snag on but have yet to have that problem. We've been using the Y-tex tags on calves for many years and started using them on the ewes about 5 years ago. I don't tag any of the lambs when their born though. I just paint (spray) the mom's number on both sides of her lambs so I can tell right off who goes with who through the summer. I like the double sided ones from Premier as you're often looking at the rear side of sheep anyway. But, I've never tried anything other than the 2x (I'm pretty sure that's the one we had anyway) and they were too small for me to read from any kind of distance. I'd like to try the 5x sometime though.

Good luck and congrats on your growing flock!

[Pipedream Farm]

Mona,

 

What kind of fencing do you have? We have box wire (cross fencing) and have found that sheep will rip out dangling ear tags (even the standard scrapies ear tags) because they graze with their heads through the box wire. The button tags that sit close to the skin are one of the few tags we have found that don't get caught on the wire.

 

Mark

[Mona Howard]

I won't need to read at a distance as I only

have 15 acres. I wonder if tattoos would work

on my sheep as most of them are black or red on the head. Dorper crosses. My fencing is cattle

panels. They can put their heads through and retract them easily also. Premier has something called a mini-tag that looked interesting. About the button tags--can you get many characters on them? I was thinking about six numbers or so.

How hard/easy is that "first one" to apply? I can see myself with a tag in my thumb......and one more annoying question....what's the difference between voluntary and mandatory scrapie tags? I know it should be self explanatory but I'm challenged..... Mona

[juliepoudrier]

Mona,

I can (sort of) answer the scrapie question, having just gone through all that. The mandatory program is the one you have to (obviously) enroll your farm in. You call the USDA office in VA and ask to enroll your farm and they will give you a premise ID and have Premier send you free tags (unless you want specific numbers or colors on your tags, which will require a special request to Premier and do cost money). Premier will also send you a tagger, but I understand that it's not very sturdy and so you may need to get a better one. (I haven't applied any of the tags to my sheep yet).

 

The voluntary program is the one that allows you to label your flock as certified free of scrapie. I believe the tags, etc., are the same, but a vet must visit your farm yearly and check your sheep. I believe that the reporting to the USDA is more extensive too. I don't remember exactly and all the literature the NC USDA folks sent me is at home, so I can't consult it.

 

With the mandatory program, sheep that will leave your property must be tagged (even if just going to a show). This allows the USDA to trace that sheep back to your farm should it be found to have scrapie at some later time. If you send a lamb(s) to market without tags, the livestock barn may apply the tags for you and charge you for it. If you buy stock that have been in the voluntary program and mix them with other sheep, the scrapie-free designation no longer applies. I'm not sure what the deal is if you buy "scrapie-free" stock and keep it unmingled, but I think the scrapie-free status doesn't move with them in that you would have to enroll your farm in the voluntary program and initiate the vet visits to keep that scrapie-free status. But don't quote me on that.

 

I'm sure someone with more experience can add to that simple explanation. I found it very frustrating trying to figure out the difference between the programs and what I needed to do to enroll my seep--until I finally managed to reach someone in the USDA office in Raleigh who was very helpful and patient with me. So your best bet is to contact the local USDA office and talk to them directly.

 

As for tattoos, ISTM that they were discussed recently on Sheep-L, but of course my senility prevents me from remembering a whole lot about the discussion. I think light inks (white?) are available, but I don't recall whether people were successful using them on dark-headed sheep.

 

Oh, and although you might think you don't need to read tags at a distance, even in small spaces it can be hard to read a tag unless the sheep are tame enough to let you walk right up to them. Our older ewes have the premise/scrapie tags and even though they are pretty large, it's hard to read them if the sheep doesn't want you getting close to her. That wasn't a real problem for us before shearing as the sheep all had distinctive looks to their fleeces, but now that they've been shorn, they all look alike! (I know that's not a problem with hair sheep, but I was just thinking of how I was trying to ID a sheep the other evening and she wouldn't let me get close enough to read her tag and I really didn't want to go get a dog or try to "tackle" her myself--I just wanted a quick confirmation of who she was....)

 

J.

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

As for tattoos, ISTM that they were discussed recently on Sheep-L, but of course my senility prevents me from remembering a whole lot about the discussion. I think light inks (white?) are available, but I don't recall whether people were successful using them on dark-headed sheep.

The person I got my first ram from, was a breeder of Dorpers. She was in the voluntary scrapie program and used tatoos to comply with the permanent ID requirements. They used a light green ink that was visible on both their black colored stock and their white headed stock.

[juliepoudrier]

Rebecca,

I've been considering tattoos as a more permanent form of ID since tags do seem to be lost with regularity. Maybe you can show me how it's done?

 

J.

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

I have to tatoo and vac all my lambs Saturday morning early. Maybe you would like to come up? I usually do it right after birth but we just haven't been here at all! There's only maybe thirteen lambs.

[Mona Howard]

Julie--thanks that does make it clearer.

Rebecca--the green ink sounds promising. I

already have a tattoo gun and number dies from

when I used to raise rabbits. Now where did I

put that thing?

When the time comes and I want to read

the tags I can probably just run the sheep through

what we call the "crush". It's just a run of

panels that narrows down to a pen that holds

about five sheep. It has a drop gate and is very

handy for worming and such. I couldn't do without it. Mona