[plt102]

Hi there, so far we have 2 strong female gfd lambs and would like to keep them. The rest of our lambs will be gfd crossed with shetland or leicester longwool and so will be for the table. I am happy with how to register our gfd ewe lambs, however when should all the lambs be tagged? Do I have to register the births of the table lambs anywhere or just keep a record in our movement book? Bit confused.

[Hazelwood Flock]

There is no registration as such, you just need to tag the lambs with your UK numbered tags either before you move them off the holding or they reach 9 months old. If being kept for future breeding they must be double tagged with 2 UK tags, one of which is electronic. You can enter the births in your holding register once you have allocated the tags. Hope this helps!

[Small Farmer]

Depends where you are.  Scotland is different.

http://www.defra.gov.uk/food-farm/animals/movements/sheep/ is a pretty helpful page

Basically, tag within 9 months or when they leave the holding.  Single tag for those undertaking a career change, double tag with EID for those being kept.  I've just tagged mine for ease of identification because the spray marks wear off.

You have a flock register which reflects everything that happens - births, deaths, movements on and off and re-tagging.  HMG asks for an annual return as at 1st Dec each year, though lots of smallholders don't seem to get asked.   So there's nothing to be done right now

[plt102]

Brilliant - thanks for the advice. We'll tag them at vaccination time while we can still identify them and then make the tricky decisions later.