[Hillview Farm]

I bought a ewe lamb about a month ago. She was hand reared and has a single yellow electronic tag (slaughter tag)

I rang up to order some tags and asked if i could upgrade her tags to breeding tags. The ins and outs of it I rang DEFRA And they basically told me she had to be slaughtered by 12 months because shes on her 2nd holding after the holding of birth and if not i'll be fined a large sum of money.

Shes a Pet... What do I do? I was planning to breed from her etc. I actually cried when they told me, shes part f the family.

Any help?

[SallyintNorth]

According to Defra's own document, Guidance for Keepers in England, Rules for identifying sheep and goats, Section 3.23(a)

Upgrading sheep with an electronic slaughter tag to full EID
These animals can be upgraded to full EID as long as the animals are on their holding of
birth or have moved to their present holding either directly from their holding of birth or
from their holding of birth through a market. The full individual animal number must be
recorded when the animals you intend to upgrade to full EID are moved onto your
holding.

It is only lambs whose single slaughter tag is non-electronic, or where the full individual Id was not recorded as the animal moved onto the subsequent holding, that cannot be upgraded.

Do you have the full id of the lamb's tag and was it recorded on the movement license when you moved her onto your holding?

[Anke]

You could always "loose" the first tag and re-tag her with a (double and EID) red tag, full numbers from your own flock. Especially if you don't plan for her to enter the food chain an she isn't pedigree.

[Hillview Farm]

Basically, The holding of birth sold her through ashford market then onto a lady at 3 days old, the lady bottle fed her and sold her to me at 8 months old. Shes just got a yellow tag that has her UK number on it. An a AM1 form was filled in which had her tag number (UK number) on it and sent to trading standards. So she was moved onto the holding correctly.

So does that mean I can keep her and upgrade tags?

[lachlanandmarcus]

'These animals can be upgraded to full EID as long as the animals are on their holding of
birth or have moved to their present holding either directly from their holding of birth or
from their holding of birth through a market.'
From the above DEFRA text it doesnt sound as if she can be upgraded. as she didnt come direct from holding of birth and she didnt come straight from them via a market - the lady in between is the issue. The bit about full recording appears to refer to those animals qualifying under the quoted paragraph. 
However..........IMO unless you get a lot of single farm payment for your land (which they might dock you for - thats normally the sanction for minor infringements), then the important thing is traceability and provided you are recording everything accurately I would upgrade her and record all the details of the old and new tags in your register.

[Hillview Farm]

So I just take out the old tag, put my breeding tags in and then record it?

[smee2012]

Page 24 of the DEFRA published guide to tagging (http://www.defra.gov.uk/publications/files/pb13327-sheeps-goats-guidance-091209.pdf)  says that an animal which is on its 2nd or more holding from the one it was born on CANNOT be upgraded to breeding stock because it is not completely traceable. Does the lady you got her from have a record of the full electronic number of the lamb? Is that what was recorded on the AML1 form?

[Hevxxx99]

Doesn't the electronic tag have the individual's number recorded if you scan it?

You have my heartfelt sympathies, being in a similar position.  As suggested on here, I intend to retag with my own flock and individual number and record the upgrade.  Hopefully, as long as traceability is maintained, it won't be an issue.

[Hillview Farm]

As its a slaughter tag it has no other number apart from the uk number. the lamb has no number of her own. the uk number was put on the AM1 form

[Hevxxx99]

I may have misunderstood, but I thought the individual number was embedded on the chip, if you can get hold of a scanner...

[smee2012]

I thought slaughter tags just had the flock number on, but I'm not sure if electronic ones also have an ID number on there too as the ones my slaughter lambs had on were non-EID. I'm assuming not, otherwise DEFRA wouldn't have a problem with upgrading.

[Anke]

Depends where you are - in Scotland the slaughter tags do have an individual number, which you can read with a reader I presume. When I ordered a mix of slaughter and breeding tags, the slaughter ones were Nos 80 to 120...
 
Really the easiest is to upgrade to a red tags, as you would with any ewe that wandered onto your land....

[plumseverywhere]

Somewhere on here is a thread from me from a year ago when I took on the sheep 'co-op' lambs that had been destined for slaughter but I decided to keep. I'll try and look it out for you.
In the end, I was advised by AH to put red replacement tags in. All is sorted now and the lambs are huge ewes still with red earrings.

[Hillview Farm]

How do I go about getting red tags then? her current tag has the UK number she was born on. Does she have my UK number on if i put red ones in?

[Hillview Farm]

Somewhere on here is a thread from me from a year ago when I took on the sheep 'co-op' lambs that had been destined for slaughter but I decided to keep. I'll try and look it out for you.
In the end, I was advised by AH to put red replacement tags in. All is sorted now and the lambs are huge ewes still with red earrings.

If you could that would be brilliant!