[Harebell]

We’ve had non-pedigree Wilts Horns and Wilts x for a number of years but this year I purchased a few registered pedigree ewes and a ram, so all being well we should have a small number of ewe lambs that we can register as pedigree Wiltshire horns.  We will still mostly have ‘normal’ non-pedigree lambs.

With our ‘normal’ lambs I have some Ritchey tags from last year, which should be enough for our crop of ‘normal’ lambs this year.  In previous years I have double tagged ewe lambs and just put the single flock no. EID yellow tag in for whether lambs, who go off to slaughter before 12 months.  My individual double tags go up to the number 00080. 

I’ve read the Wiltshire Horn society guidelines about what info should be put on a pedigree tag but how do I go about ordering these tags?  Is there a good supplier for these kind of tags (i.e. Sherwells).  Also what should I do about individual numbers?  Should I get tags that continue on as  00081, 00082 etc or start with 00001 with the pedigree sheep?

How do other people who run both ‘normal’ and a pedigree flock on the same farm/holding no. deal with this?  Sorry if it’s an obvious, silly question!

[Fleecewife]

If your breed society uses normal ID tags, then the next consecutive numbers will be issued to you automatically when your tags are printed.  There must be a central database to be used by all tag producers, so no matter which company you use you will still get your consecutive numbers allocated.

Some breed societies issue breed-specific tags, which are numbered according to when the lambs were registered, so again you have no input to the numbers you receive (with this type of tag you still have to put in a CPH tag).

If your breed society requires additional information to go on the tag then ask for that with your main order.  There will be some discussion as to how many pedigree tags and how many routine tags you want, but phone the tag company to discuss it.  I think most tag companies are geared up for this sort of problem, so just keeping the company you have been with is fine.

This is my understanding of the situation.

[Harebell]

Ah OK, I'll speak to my tag supplier and hopefully they'll be able to help!

[Tim W]

Having kept wiltshires for many years I can tell you that
1) in my experience the society are not too bothered about having pedigree numbers on the tags---and unless you go showing or sell at a society sale you are not likely to need this
2) they state in the rules that you must have a separate tag for pedigree info---again no one seems to care
3) most tag suppliers will put pedigree info on an official tag---shearwell have done this for me , it's very small print but complies with the society rules
4) there is (or was) a society rule saying that you cannot keep pedigree and non registered wilts on the same farm ---again totally unenforceable

Don't know if that helps?

[pooks]

I have wilts (micro flock) and i get my tags from fearings and they put all the info i need (including my wilts flock number and defra flock number on same tag.  so my tags will read UK0388*** (my defra flock number), then a gap, then my wilts horn flock number 0117* then a gap then the year (so for this year its 14) then a gap then the individual id number 001.  each year they seem to start the individual number from where they left off last year, even though the year number has changed, so last year (13 001 to 0010 and this year 14 011 to 020).  hope that helps, but probably just made you more confused.

[mowhaugh]

No specific knowledge about Wiltshire Horns, but Shearwell are very helpful about putting extra data onto tags.  It doesn't cost anything extra, so this year we've just had the extra added onto all our double tag sets, that way we don't need to worry about finding the right set of tags.