The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: CornishFarmer on May 17, 2011, 01:45:13 pm
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Are you in England? Asking as it differs between countries......
I popped into my local office and they had a nice shiny mini booklet with good pics showing which ear, where to place on the ear, and which tags etc. You could prob request the same online. Similar info was also sent when I ordered the eartags.
:sheep: :farmer:
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This year we went to alflex and they were really helpful. we use the flag tags on our sheep, but they are big eared sheep.I don't know what breed you have but you might not want large eartags in their ears, we like them cause we can see the numbers from quite far away.
I believe Ketchum are good and we had an absolute nightmare with Daltons last year.
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Hi,
We use (and sell) Qwik Eid Tags - small, good retention and not prone to getting ripped out.
No problem with taking a sheep to slaughter which is double tagged (Eid + Match up) - we tag all ours that way anyway, and commercial farmers get a reduction in carcass price if it is not EID tagged.
If on holding of Birth you can upgrade a sheep with a slaughter tag to EID tags as long as you record the change in your paperwork. If not on holding of birth it is not possible (legally) to upgrade to EID.
Hope that helps a little
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We are now using ALLFLEX Bubblegum tags and so far they seem to be great. They are a bit wide-looking but in fact they are soft with plenty of space for the ear and don't tend to cause some of the infection problems many people had when EID tags first came out. We don't put them in until 4 months, using turkey wing tags as birth tags up til then (with a field full of small bouncing black lambs, we have to mark them somehow for pedigree ID) So yes, I would recommend Bubblegum tags.
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Another thumbs up for allflex bubblegums.
we use them on our shetlands (small ears). as unregistered we dont tag until 6 months ish to try to minimise tag problems. we eid everything, breeding or slaughter.
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We use Ketchum for our tags and I've found them really helpful.
The EID slaughter tags for the tup lambs go in as we load them for the abattoir at 6 / 7 months old. THis is what's required in Scotland.
My three 2007 ewes have no tags - fell / ripped out. I bought new tags for them this year but I'm putting them in jiffy bags with their names on and will put them in if I need to, same with my younger ewes and gimmers. I will tag this year's lambs with one EID tag each, so that I can register them and recognise them. If I ever sell them, I'll put their other tags in.
Some of the older ewes have ripped ears so, unless I have to, I'm leaving them. I can of course indentify them and they all have names :)
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We seem to have nightmare with sheep losing there tags, especially in the lambs from last year. Several really manled ears. This year thanks to fleecewife we have turkey tagged the lambs which seems to have worked & will properly tag later
Rose
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We have only been keeping sheep (Wiltshire Horn) for about 2 years now - last year all the lambs went to slaughter, so they all had slaughter batch tags (qwik tags) - we haven't had any problems with them at all. This year we were possibly thinking of selling on some of the ewe lambs for breeding, so we would need to have Eid tag and match-up tag - is there a big difference in price between slaughter tags and double tagging?
From what I have read on the Defra website, electronic tagging isn't quite as tricky as I thought, but I can't find prices anywhere.
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Hi,
Have a look at the link in my signature - there are small batches of EID pairs - not that expensive.
Thanks
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Brilliant - thank you for that. I didn't realise how easy it is to electronically tag - unless I'm missing something.
Thanks again
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No your not missing anything,
Just an electronic tag in one ear (Usually the left) and a match-up tag in the other ear.
Thanks
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Use Allflex Bubblegum tags. They are really soft and seem to suit my sheep well. They are designed to break across the joint if snagged therefore reducing the trouble of split ears.
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Just picking up on a few comments and queries ...
We use Shearwell tags which are big and ugly but easy to read and really quite good at not coming out, and Shearwell do offer a 'free replacement for life' option (for which you forgo a few percent off - ie, for which you pay, but it's not very much when you have a lot of sheep.) I doubt if I would use Shearwell for small numbers of small-eared pedigree sheep.
At time of posting, Shearwell charge 64p for a slaughter tag or 79p for a 'set' - ie, yellow electronic plus non-electronic match tag (your choice of colour.) We buy all paired and sometimes use the yellow (electronic) tags as slaughter tags (ie, on their own) for lambs going to slaughter, which is strictly not correct but no-one has minded yet. The spare non-electronic match tags then get used re-tagging older ewes who've lost their old (non-Shearwell) tags - again, not strictly correct but no-one has minded yet.
commercial farmers get a reduction in carcass price if it is not EID tagged.
I think it must depend on the slaughterhouse / buyer, SFS. Our buyers don't care a fig, which includes Welsh Country Foods, who supply Asda and Tesco. (No they don't label our lamb Welsh, be calm my Welsh friends. They ask about locale on the form, ours is North Country.)
I have threatened before to share with you all what I really think about EID but I need to get on and feed my sheep so won't start now. But I will do later on.
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Hi Sally,
Yes it depends on the slaughterhouse - some prefer (and almost insist) on Electronic tags - makes their life easier when they have 1000's going through - and pay the supplier a small % less for non-EID tagged ones to cover their additional time visually checking tags.
Doesn't really matter what our opinions are on EID, it is here to stay, and if my contacts in the Pig Identification world are to be believed it is looming on the horizon for pigs as well.
Thanks
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the big problem is getting the EID tags to stay in with the processes the pig goes through a 75% success rate was the last figure i heard of on commercial pigs also heard the scanners do not read 100%on sheep going through markets
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Hi Robert,
The info I have is that for pigs research is inderway to develop a microchip type one to pop under the skin. Problem is that current "Dog" type microchips are glass coated and not easily detectable in the carcass - so work is underway to develop a type that can be easily found post slaughter.
As an aside, local newspapers here reported a chap who hurt a tooth at local chinese restraunt, visiting the dentist the next day who pulled out the remains of a dog-microchip from his tooth ! - anyone lost a dog ??
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yes the chips can move around the carcass originally placed in the neck ends up in the back leg
the chinky has a modern twist now 40 years ago it was just the carcasses that were the tell tale signs of dogs being for any day of the year not just for xmas :'(