[in the hills]

Yes, we were issued with a flock number before we bought our sheep ..... they said we could wait but they may as well sort it at the same time as the holding number.

[Daisys Mum]

Any weaner pigs that I have bought in have just had a paint mark as this is allowed so they have no tags until they go for slaughter and that's when I put in the metal tags. I was told that they were better able to stand up to the heat when dipping to remove hair. In hindsight I would have bought a slapmarked but as I only do a few each year I stick with my tagger.

[Anke]

It's interesting that they now hand out herd/flock numbers before you got your animals. I had at the time a long discussion with Animal health about this, and they specifically asked me to get back to them once my animals were on my holding so they don't issue loads of numbers to people who then never go on actually getting those sheep/pigs/goats... I now get called every so often to verify that I am still keeping pigs as I don't breed...

I don't know why the abattoir would ask you to a) remove the original identifier/tag from your pig (the number it has been registered at DEFRA/Animal Movement people with), and then to put in your own number - it seems counterintuitive to the whole idea of tagging and tracing animals... 

Of course if piggies arrive with slap mark only, then the metal tags are easily applied once animals are in the trailer and had their customary bottle of cheap cider...

[devonlad]

we do the same with weaners, as they can be moved from holding of birth to a new holding on just a spray mark in first year of life. previously we've then just put in a metal tag with our herd number on a day or so before they go to slaughter. reduce the chance of getting one ripped out in the scrum at the trough. we picked up a couple last week however and the chap had already tagged them, with individual plastic tags- not ideal in the heat of the slaughter process- but we'll have to deal with it.
our home bred ram lambs go for slaughter before a year old on just one "batch tag" with just flock number. ours are bright green but only because we chose that colour.
anything over a year (sheep wise) needs double tagging- EID which is always yellow and a visual tag which again can be a choice of colours (ours are blue). to be honest any sheep born here and staying here has a dual tag set aside for them but we don't actually tag them. we know whos who and after a first year of tagging everything and then mopping up blood and treating torn ears we don't bother. the only time we'd tag them is if we were selling them on for breeding elsewhere (or if the inspector came a-calling !!)
other than yellow for EID the only other "reserved colours" are red for replacement tags and black if the EID is in bolus form. other than that theres all the colours of the rainbow which is lovely, but potentially bloody confusing as far as tags go we have converted happily to shearwells bubble tags- after several disappointing tries with others.

[john and helen]

I think you are running pretty much, starting with sheep, goat and pigs all at the same time... most of us took it a lot slower...

Sorry, i haven't made myself clear on this one..i have very little experience, with sheep goats or pigs, Helen has been working with them for the last two years, but on the keeper side, she worked in a farm theme park, but had very little to do with the official stuff like movement records etc etc but was hands on with lambing, kidding, feet, dagging, etc etc she also worked with the pigs, deer, donkey's and fowl….i haven't, but i need to learn as well…