The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Pete2 on May 22, 2020, 06:49:44 pm
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Hi
Just bought in some lambs which I intend to slaughter this October if up to weight. The lambs are all double tagged with yellow tags - none of the tags are electronic readable ones and only contain six numbers which I now gather are slaughter tags. I was always under the impression that slaughter tags were for animals leaving the holding of birth and going direct to the slaughter house. In the past, all sheep I have owned had the long number with the sheeps individual number on the tag (electronic and plain) which I put in shortly after birth. This is my first experience with slaughter tags - I just have a nagging thought that as they are not going directly to slaughter they should all have long numbers - is anyone able to put me right on this one?
Thanks all
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As long as they go to slaughter in the first year of life you can leave them in. If you keep them for breeding/pets/meat over 12 months old cut out the tags and put double red tags in.
How do you know they aren’t eid ? As far as I know all sheep must have an electronic EID tag- in England this is always yellow (I think in Scotland it can be any colour). If they aren’t EID then I think they need replacing with double red tags but do stand corrected on this one.
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Hi Twizzel
Normally on the EID tags you can see where the space for the transponder is filled and on the plain ones its empty. On the tags on these lambs there is nowhere for the transponder to hide - they do look very flimsy compared to my old ones.
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All yellow tags are EID. They have come to you on that number and they will go to the abattoir with that number. I can't see it is going to be an issue as long as your records show how many you received under that flock number and they go to slaughter before a year of age. I wouldn't worry.
If you are concerned they aren't eid ask the person you bought them from but I would be surprised if they aren't. Or get someone to read them for you.
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Thanks Harmony
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I didnt realise that all yellow tags are EID - I just googled this and you are absolutely correct:
Fearings:
Electronic tags are YELLOW only and YELLOW tags are not permitted for any other purpose (including management.
The tag is slightly different to the ones I'm used to hence couldn't see where the transponder was, so looks like everything is in order, they must be EID.
Thanks again.
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I would just point out that in Scotland EID tags can be any colour but you are asked to use yellow like the other 3 countries ( go figure ) and non eid can be any colour including yellow . The tags you have Pete2 have UK0 then 5 numbers ?? and the EID chip can be on the inside of the tag or in the joining pin section
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It is not, however, okay to have two EID slaughter tags in the same animal, surely? Because they will have different id numbers when read electronically and surely will get registered as two individuals when running through the automated readers that sit in / over a race?
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Sally i definitely read that crazy bit about the tags but i can't find it now , so ive taken out that bit so it doesn't confuse , i put it in as i couldn't be leave what i read . The fact that scotland allows us to use any colour eid tag but asks us to use yellow shows how crazy a system
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Just for clarification - yellow slaughter tags are electronic and only have the flock number printed on them, but they also contain an individual number that can only be read electronically.
personally I don't know why they don't just print the visual number on slaughter tags.. I don't usually tag lambs until they are ready for slaughter as I want to keep the best ewe lambs back for breeding. If I tagged at weaning (for example), I gets a bit messy about how to (legally) tag a lamb with a new set of tags when it already has a tag with an un-readable number...
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IN your holding register Record of replacement tags - column 3 new double tag numbers - column 4 old tag flock number only if you can't read the eid and then in the comments column put upgrade to double tags
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IN your holding register Record of replacement tags - column 3 new double tag numbers - column 4 old tag flock number only if you can't read the eid and then in the comments column put upgrade to double tags
sounds simple when you put it like that :roflanim: :roflanim: :roflanim:
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ouch, looks like I have a problem after all. It seems logical that if the slaughter tag -although having only a six digit flock number on the outside, contains a longer electronic number then two yellow tags on the same sheep will give two different numbers on one sheep leading to confusion when being slaughtered, the quick answer would be to remove one of the tags. I think I need to check with the manufacturers if they do add extra electronic numbers on slaughter tags. on the face of it I'm not sure they would have extra numbers on slaughter tags as they would not be know to anyone, the breeder, any subsequent owner (me) or anyone I sell on to. Thanks everyone for trying to help me, I really appreciate it.
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Sorry little confused by the above post ,all sheep either by 9 month's of age or upon leaving the holding of birth have to be give an individual number only related to that animal , this individual number is held in a micro chip ( slaughter tag ) or in a micro chip plus a visual number ( matched pair of tags ) . Unless you have an EID reader then no one can read the individual number in the chip , but this is not a problem for your records as you just use the flock number then when they go for killing the micro chip will be read by the market / abattoir . I have no idea why they have 2 yellow tags it may be they are old non eid slaughter tags or for some reason they are double eid slaughter tags with either the same or different numbers . You could ask around some farmers have EID readers or speak to you local market and ask if you can take a lamb and they will read the tags or if really worried then upgrade to a red slaughter tag or red pair with your flock number . Does the movement document you got when they came onto your holding have individual numbers on ??? If you cut out one of the tags , which one ?? as you have no idea if both or only one is EID ??
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I think in this case I'd just cut both out and replace with double red tags, job done.
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You can still send a sheep for slaughter when it has double tags, ie one yellow EID plus a second tag of any colour as long as the number matches the EID tag. Thus double tagging all lambs makes life simpler and doesn't compromise the eventual destination, slaughter, retention or breding sale. I find the small extra cost outweighs all other issues.
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You can still send a sheep for slaughter when it has double tags, ie one yellow EID plus a second tag of any colour as long as the number matches the EID tag. Thus double tagging all lambs makes life simpler and doesn't compromise the eventual destination, slaughter, retention or breding sale. I find the small extra cost outweighs all other issues.
The issue here is that the lambs have double slaughter tags, which initially the OP thought might not be eid types even though they are yellow. Then the question arose as to whether a slaughter tag has a number other than the flock number (that we can't see) in the chip and therefore would two slaughter tags, same flock number actually read as two different tags in the one sheep?
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Hi
Just thought I would bring everyone up to date on the outcome of this..
I contacted ARAMS who were only able to guide me to DEFRA web site but then tried Trading Standards who managed to resolve the problem in the most obviously practical way - by allowing me to remove one of the tags on each lamb.
They want me to keep the removed tags should they need to look at them at a later date, make notes in my holding register explaining what I have done, they will also put notes on file against my holding at their end. At my request they also sent confirmation by email of the above instructions for my files and so the problem has now been solved.
Hopefully, this will give guidance for anyone else that finds themselves in a similar situation in the future.
Thanks all
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Problem is only solved if the tag you left in is definitely an EID tag !! is the tag you have cut out EID ??
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Both tags are yellow EID tags which was the problem - one has now been removed - problem now 100% resolved.
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Just out of curiosity, were their individual numbers on the movement form?
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No