[Paulie]

Very stressed about this one ladies and gents as I realise I am now breaking the rules 
I have 3 tegs (purchased January) that only have slaughter tags, I always intended them for breeding stock but wasn't able to get my head around the tagging of them, the 2015 rules below say I can keep them as breeding stock if I can trace them back to their holding of birth but what do I actually need to do?

Replace ear tag pairs on adult animals

Adult animals generally have 2 ear tags that display the animal’s individual identification number and your flock or herd mark.

If 1 of the ear tags is lost or damaged you can either:

replace the lost tag with a replica that displays the existing identification number
remove the remaining tag and replace both tags with replicas that display the existing identification number, or a pair of tags that display a new individual identification number
You must follow the second of these options if both ear tags are lost or damaged

If you decide to keep a lamb or kid beyond a year old, you must replace its single tag with 2 adult identifiers before its first birthday. If the lamb or kid is no longer on the holding where it was born, you can only do this if you can trace the animal back to its holding of birth.

[Hellybee]

Red tags ?

[Bionic]

Yes, red tags are what I would suggest too

[crofterswife]

yes, red tags.

[shep53]

You need to purchase RED double tags  with your flock number , cut out the single tags and replace  , then fill in your holding register , if the slaughter tags  are eid then get some one to read the individual no  so that you can record it , write any details of the birth holding .  Record the new tags individual no's and in the reason for column write upgrade         

[Paulie]

Thank you guys 

[snowyriver]

Hi Paulie.

Whilst I don't disagree with red tags possibly being the correct way forward, they are expensive and there is paperwork involved.

Personally I'd be inclined to contact the farm of origin, asking nicely if they would help you out by supplying 3 pairs of tags for you to re-tag these sheep, these would have the correct flock number on.
If the farm of origin is local to you, maybe they would even come over and do the re-tagging if you don't fancy the task.

[shep53]

SO if I understand,  lets say I am the farm of birth and Paulie says can I double tag these hoggs as favour , no probs .   The 3 pairs of double tags are mine ,I bought them and the GOV knows when I bought them and I must record when I use them , so I cut out the slaughter tags record the no's in my register , put in the double tags and record  ( I can't give them or sell them , must be a paper trail or  if inspected how would I explain , cant say they are lost or damaged as they are in paulies sheep and he needs  a record )    so  new tags in as upgrades 3 months late     all in my register, so on paper I have the sheep not PAULIE .

[Garmoran]

Good point Shep. I have a sheep given to me by a neighbour which has only one tag and was intending asking him for a double set to put things right, but I think the documentation system is not designed to allow this.

[snowyriver]

Hi shep53.

I have 3 tegs (purchased January) that only have slaughter tags, I always intended them for breeding stock.

If you decide to keep a lamb or kid beyond a year old, you must replace its single tag with 2 adult identifiers before its first birthday. If the lamb or kid is no longer on the holding where it was born, you can only do this if you can trace the animal back to its holding of birth.

If I was responsible for the holding of birth, I’d certainly help Paulie out. Maybe next year he’ll be back for 6 tegs and as I’d helped him out, I’d be his first port of call, making sure next year they’d be double tagged. These should not have been sold on slaughter tags if they were intended for breeding and I’d be very concerned if Paulie had an inspection, that these 3 tegs in their present state could be traced back to me.

I’m not suggesting anything is done without a paper trail to safeguard both parties. Where is the problem with being honest? record these 3 pairs of tags in both registers clearly recording the date they were used and that they were used to replace slaughter tags in tegs that had been retained for breeding.

[shep53]

THE 3 hoggs were bought in January on perfectly legal slaughter tags the fact that they were kept beyond 1 yr old for breeding has nothing to do with the seller .     How  could you legally record the same numbers as being on 2 holdings at the same time ??                 Many people are going to read this thread and therefore I am trying to explain the rules in a straight forward way ,      pointless or not  .      For a smallholder failure to adhere is not a big problem but for farmers in receipt of  SFP     failure can result in  a % loss of money .          UPON my last  inspection which took 2 days the  short term misplacement of  20 double unused tags caused   a certain amount of tension for a   while

[snowyriver]

I fully appreciate the number of people visiting this forum, therefore we’ll agree to disagree.

My understanding of the ‘Sheep Identification Rule’ is that animals intended for breeding must be double tagged (including 1 electronic) on leaving the premises of birth or on reaching their 1st birthday whichever happens earliest, this is where it becomes the responsibility of the seller. This clearly didn’t happen and therefore sheep intended for breeding were sold with slaughter tags which is totally illegal!

I would also suggest that failure to adhere to rules and regulations will financially hit smallholders in exactly the same way as larger farms if they are claiming SFP.

[Hellybee]

They were probably sold as stores with the one single tag, totally fine at that age, then were pulled out for breeding.   They shouldve been re tagged immediately with red tag.  So selling them with one tag was originally not illegal in my eyes

[Kimbo]

As a complete novice with all this to deal with next year, I can tell you that tagging is really confusing. Even you guys cant agree what's legal so what hope for me? 

[Robyn]

This is what I hate about forums!

Hellybee and shep53, you're both assuming the hoggs were initially sold as stores.
Snowyriver you're assuming the hoggs were sold for breeding purposes.

The simple fact is we haven't been given that information in the initial post by Paulie, only the fact that they were bought on slaughter tags and he had always intended them for breeding.

There's every possibility that parts of all your posts are correct.