Lamb Identification Tagging

Surfn

what age do you lads tag your lambs at.
the lambs here will be all going to the butcher

Nekarsulm

when they are in the trailer.

No claiming to be any kind of Saint, but at least I tag them on my own yard, not in the queue in the mart, often with a flash-lamp and a Dept. vet hovering about in the building!

razor8

A day old here

sea12

Leaving the farm gate here

Conmaicne Mara

Nekarsulm wrote: »

when they are in the trailer.

No claiming to be any kind of Saint, but at least I tag them on my own yard, not in the queue in the mart, often with a flash-lamp and a Dept. vet hovering about in the building!

I don't believe untagged sheep are even allowed into the mart premises here anymore.

Surfn

if ya dont tag them before you let em out or even a big pen of them, its hard to identify lambs to theirs. this is the reason i ask this question. can i just use the long thin slaughter tag in them because they will all be going to the butcher

Harmony Farm

Newborn lamb's ears are too delicate for the tags. We tag ours as others do, before bringing them to the butcher or at 6 months if we keep them. Marking ewe/lamb pairs by other methods such as spraying numbers on their side is easy to read and gentle on the little 'uns.
SNIP

No Advertising Allowed

razor8

Did hundreds of lambs from 1 or 2 days old and never affected there ears,

AnFeirmeoir

Tagged next years replacements today.
Didn't make the same mistake as last year where I didn't tag before shearing and lost all the dam info I had gathered at lambing as you can't match ewes and lambs after shearing easily. #learning

Conmaicne Mara

AnFeirmeoir wrote: »

Tagged next years replacements today.
Didn't make the same mistake as last year where I didn't tag before shearing and lost all the dam info I had gathered at lambing as you can't match ewes and lambs after shearing easily. #learning

I put small management tags in all mine. I find the wool of the blackface lamb grows in such a way as to quickly render spray marker useless.

Username John

Conmaicne Mara wrote: »

I put small management tags in all mine. I find the wool of the blackface lamb grows in such a way as to quickly render spray marker useless.

Used to use the small management tags as well, but I found a lot of them were lost. I'd say by lambs putting their head through wire (some of our place has the cheap mild steel wire, the ewe or lamb can stick their head through easily, but often get caught on the way back)

I use bigger tags now, I think they are officially pig tags
Bug a bag of blank ones, and write the numbers on em, details of the ewe, etc....

I will admit they look big on small lambs - but they always stay in, and they are easily enough read out in the field, which an be handy at times.

Conmaicne Mara

I've yet to lose an Ardes type management tag, theres's both sheep wire and chicken wire (keep hares out of the now unused veg plot).

arctictree

Thinking of doing some tagging this weekend.

Ewe lambs : EID Tag in right ear and Mart tag in left
Wethers : Mart tag in left ear only

Right?

Username John

arctictree wrote: »

Thinking of doing some tagging this weekend.

Ewe lambs : EID Tag in right ear and Mart tag in left
Wethers : Mart tag in left ear only

Right?

Are you keeping all the ewe lambs - if so, then yeah, what you say is correct (I think)

But if you are planning on selling the ewe lambs, then I wouldnt put in EID.

If you arent sure AND if they under 9 months, then I wouldn't tag em until you are sure... but maybe that's just me and my lazy approach
(I tend to tag as they leave to go to the factory, or as they approach the 9 months, and I know which ones I'll be keeping, so which ones will get EID tags)

EDIT : Just thought, if you want to sell the ewe lambs in the mart for breeding, then I would put in EID tags. But if not selling specifically for breeding, then I would use normal mart tags.

arctictree

Username John wrote: »

Are you keeping all the ewe lambs - if so, then yeah, what you say is correct (I think)

But if you are planning on selling the ewe lambs, then I wouldnt put in EID.

If you arent sure AND if they under 9 months, then I wouldn't tag em until you are sure... but maybe that's just me and my lazy approach
(I tend to tag as they leave to go to the factory, or as they approach the 9 months, and I know which ones I'll be keeping, so which ones will get EID tags)

EDIT : Just thought, if you want to sell the ewe lambs in the mart for breeding, then I would put in EID tags. But if not selling specifically for breeding, then I would use normal mart tags.

Thanks John - Choices!

A big reason why I'm tagging early is for my own records. I want to keep a good set of records this year for various purposes and the paint is starting to fade on some of my lambs if I don't do it soon.

Regarding selling the ewe lambs. I only have a few (about a dozen) and will probably be keeping half of them. I assume you lot have 3 lots of ewe lambs:

1) The ones you keep for breeding (3 star)
2) The ones you sell for breeding (2 star)
3) The ones you sell for the factory (1 star)

Or would you sell your top ones at the Mart in the breeders section?!

Username John

arctictree wrote: »

Thanks John - Choices!

A big reason why I'm tagging early is for my own records. I want to keep a good set of records this year for various purposes and the paint is starting to fade on some of my lambs if I don't do it soon.

Regarding selling the ewe lambs. I only have a few (about a dozen) and will probably be keeping half of them. I assume you lot have 3 lots of ewe lambs:

1) The ones you keep for breeding (3 star)
2) The ones you sell for breeding (2 star)
3) The ones you sell for the factory (1 star)

Or would you sell your top ones at the Mart in the breeders section?!

Hello Artic,
I can tell you what I do - I suspect its more a "what not to do" than anything else...
I should start by saying - you are already ahead of me with this star craic. I havent ventured into that yet...
I tag all lambs with management tags, so tis easier to keep track of who's who, so to speak...
I select ewe lambs to keep - and monitor them during the year. Any that dont perform well, get the road. Sometime I keep ones I like the look of, even tho maybe they werent originally selected to keep. Sometimes I sell ones I had intended to keep, as they might turn out a bit buttier than expected, or for some other reason. And - I nearly always end up keeping more than I should, or more than I originally planned to...
Not sure this is the best breeding policy tho...
I dont sell any for breeding. They either go to the factory, or are kept for breeding. Main reason being I dont go to the mart with any, cos of work, but mainly cos I am not near a good mart for sheep.

Nekarsulm

Not very scientific, but this year I only ringed the tails of twin ewe lambs, that I liked the look of. At least when pulling out a few for the mart/factory, you can tell instantly if its a lamb you might consider keeping or not.

Green farmer

Sounds like good stockman ship traits to me lads !!!