[firemansam]

I have been told that ear tags have a year letter. my 2 new ryelands have letter P. therefore name them with a new name beginning with the year letter so you know who was born when.
Makes sense to me.
But that made me think. Can I use my 2012 tags on my goats and lambs due to be born soon???
Does it matter, are you allowed?
I bought 30 pairs of tags in November for february!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DOH!

[smee2012]

I have absolutely no idea but I think it could depend on your breed. Our sheep are Zwartbles and the breed society (ZSA) dictates the letter that will be used for new lambs each year. Our girls were born last year and were called names beginning with 'W'. This year I think the letter is A but these letters don't appear on the ear tags.

[hexhammeasure]

we have suffolks and use the year letters specified by the breed society, however we allocate a colour to the year and use the colours to distinguish ages although as they get older and lose tags it gets less reliable. Luckily my boss can identify each one individually anyway or so it seems

[Rosemary]

If you are registering Ryeland tups, they must be registered with a name starting with the correct year letter - for example tups born in 2012 will all be Sam, Superman and so on. Ewes don't have registered names, just a number and the number (for ewes and tups) doesn't include a letter. The importance of the letter ony relates to the name of the tup. (Although our three ewe lambs from last year are Stella, Smudge and Sweatpea - these are only pet names).

The numbers on the tags have nothing to do with the letter, so you can use them.

[shep53]

I have been told that ear tags have a year letter. my 2 new ryelands have letter P. therefore name them with a new name beginning with the year letter so you know who was born when.
Makes sense to me.
But that made me think. Can I use my 2012 tags on my goats and lambs due to be born soon? ??
Does it matter, are you allowed?
I bought 30 pairs of tags in November for february!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DOH!

I assume you mean eid double tags if so then yes you can and must use them, when you bought them a record was kept on a national database, and you have to write down in the flock register every time you put a tag in a sheep or have unused in store, and if inspected youmust account for all tags bought, if you want a year letter on your tags then you have to specify at ordering

[colliewoman]

(Although our three ewe lambs from last year are Stella, Smudge and Sweatpea - these are only pet names).

 

[Rosemary]

(Although our three ewe lambs from last year are Stella, Smudge and Sweatpea - these are only pet names).

 

I didn't notice that - the eyesight must be going as well 

[VSS]

I have been told that ear tags have a year letter. my 2 new ryelands have letter P. therefore name them with a new name beginning with the year letter so you know who was born when.
Makes sense to me.
But that made me think. Can I use my 2012 tags on my goats and lambs due to be born soon? ??
Does it matter, are you allowed?
I bought 30 pairs of tags in November for february!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DOH!

If you want to register pedigree ryelands or coloured ryelands born in 2013 the tags will need to carry the year letter "T", along with your Ryeland/Coloured Ryeland flock number and and arbitary individual number (lots of RFBS members are now using the DEFRA five digit number here.
Any questions, email the secretary (info@ryelandfbs.com) - she's very helpful.