The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: NewLifeOnTheFarm on January 30, 2018, 08:20:55 am
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Hi all, prob going to have a few posts off me today as I clarify my thoughts.
Was just wondering what type of ear tags you recommend using? Are some more likely to come out etc? When you double tag, do you use different colour visual tag?
Thanks.
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The Eid tag is always yellow and a replacement tag is always red. Apart from those two colours you can have any other colour you like!
I buy my tags from Symtag and always have, but have to say I do get quite a few losses, be interesting to hear if others have found the same?
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Do you use a particular shape? I have seen 3 or 4 types, strips, dots, triangular type?
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Replacement tags for sheep not born on your holding must both be red. For sheep born on your holding, the EID is always yellow, the other colour you can choose. We use Shearwell set tags and have good retention rates with them.
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We use Allflex Bubblegum tags. They're sort of rubbery and once in, we cut the tag into two parts along the fold line - it's scored along the line. Since we started doing this, we haven't had any losses :fc:
We use a different colour of management tag every year, so we know which year each ewe is in.
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As above. Even the Badger Face have problems tearing out the latest Bubblegums. I'm tempted to try button tags next time but they may be more expensive.
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The main difference I can find in the shape seems to be the price, button tags are about double of the strips/triangle shape ones. Maybe they are better, we will see!
Thanks all, understand about the colour requiremens for EIDs and replacements, was just wondering about peoples use of a visual management tag. Seems useful to be able to spot different colours from a distance!
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All mine which have come in with button tags have lost them. The bubblegum ones cut as Rosemary says have been reliable - so far.
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Will give the bubblegum tags a try first then, see how we get on. What is everyone's practice re tagging for slaughter? So needs either slaughter tag, which has flock number. Or am i right in thinking you can double tag all lambs with full EID and a management tag and that's still ok? Just wondering about if you change your mind about keeping a lamb and sending for slaughter etc?
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Or am i right in thinking you can double tag all lambs with full EID and a management tag and that's still ok?
Yes, that's absolutely fine, and is what most smallholders do.
As a general principle, the bigger the tag, the easier it is to read (duh...), but also the easier it is for it to catch on something and pull out (you know, I sometimes think my vast intellect is wasted on farming :dunce: ).
Almost all of the sheep we bought in came with button tags, and almost all of them have lost them one way or another. We replaced them all with Shearwell "SET" tags, and have only lost one so far. The disadvantage of the SET tags is that the numbers are too small to read from a distance.
The colours on the visual tags don't mean anything (except red, which is reserved for replacement tags), so you can do what you like - lots of people change the colour each year. Our sheep are all pedigree, so have an additional number and year letter on the tag. What we do these days is to use any left over tags from last year to tag this year's wether lambs or others destined for slaughter. They get tagged when we ring their balls, and the colour makes it nice and easy to identify them at weaning time.
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Will give the bubblegum tags a try first then, see how we get on. What is everyone's practice re tagging for slaughter? So needs either slaughter tag, which has flock number. Or am i right in thinking you can double tag all lambs with full EID and a management tag and that's still ok? Just wondering about if you change your mind about keeping a lamb and sending for slaughter etc?
I double tag everything- then the lambs are all identifiable by individual number which I can record weights etc with. Plus the visual tag is not much more ££... the compulsory EID is the expensive tag at about 70p.
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I use Caisley tags. The eid one is button with a flag back and the management tag is a flag tag both sides. The flag tags have space for breed society flock number and animal number in reasonable size print. So far I have not lost any in 4 years.
This year I am puting small blank tags in as they lamb and writing sire and dam on the tag with a marker. The idea is to cut out and use the same hole for the big tags when the lambs are a bit older.
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I hate button tags but love having flag tags which I can usually read without catching ewe and having to find glasses to read them (yes I always make the mistake of catching the ewe first then realising I need the glasses which are winking at me from the bench!! :roflanim: ) Unfortunately, for some reason I've not yet fathomed, the manufacturer always match flags to buttons :(
I change tag colour yearly so I have an at a glance idea of age of sheep ..... and use a different colour for the wethers ... instant male female identification ...... this may seem expensive but 2 years ago I decided to use up all the odd leftovers which included some no flags.... chaos.......... I then had to catch sheep to check sex and am now left with some ewes with tags I cant read without catching. The extra cost of buying tags is soon out weighed by the frustration of having to keep catching sheep. .... or trying to keep glasses on your nose whilst hanging onto sheep in one hand and drench gun in other and with your third hand grabbing the drench bottle which has slipped of you shoulder as you lean forward... and that leaves your fourth hand to catch glasses before they vanish totally beneath the woolly mass at your feet .....
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Replacement tags for sheep not born on your holding must both be red. For sheep born on your holding, the EID is always yellow, the other colour you can choose. We use Shearwell set tags and have good retention rates with them.
The Eid tag is always yellow and a replacement tag is always red. Apart from those two colours you can have any other colour you like!
I buy my tags from Symtag and always have, but have to say I do get quite a few losses, be interesting to hear if others have found the same?
Just to confuse , since New Life is in Scotland they can have what ever colour EID tag they like ( subject to manufacturer ) to go with the matching non eid . I ve tried most tags and bubble bum or shearwell set tags are imo the best retention
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shearwell set tags
.Cheap
.small so don't drag baby ears down
.free replacements if you lose any
.excellent retention rates (we lose 2 or 3 a year out of 1000/1400 lambs
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^ Totally agree. The SET tags are hard to read at any distance though (and actually even when you've caught the sheep, if it won't stay still). For me, it all depends on whether that's important to you or not.
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We used bubblegum breeding tags. We are planning to go for the same colour each year but we have a very small flock (4 lambs last year), and our sheep are all very friendly so we have no trouble reading the tags. We went for blue this year for readability, we have some sheep with pink and green (bought in starter flock).
I'm pretty sure we put the tags in the right way but our flock number is on the inside which makes the individual number easier to read. The bought in sheep had the flock number on the outside so you had to get them to look at you or turn the ear slightly to see who was who.
Dans
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NLOTF .... is it pregnant ewes you are getting? If not you wont need any tags until you do have lambs born on your holding.
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Yes, they are in lamb, just thinking about what we will need to get in for April. I am a huge listmaker/organiser, especially with new things like this! ????
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Roxan tags are fab ????