Annual Census and retagging.

Western Pomise

Will be dosing a bunch of ewes tomorrow.Will do rest of flock before Christmas.

Was just thinking from a management perspective it would be a good idea to check and retag anything missing tags before doing census.
Last time I checked them for tags was when ram went out in October.

Do other people retag ewes if needed at this time of year?

tom_k

I take a note and mark any missing one/both tags but I generally dont replace them this time of year as they'll always be losing a few in the ring feeders.

That's probably bad advice from a tagging regulations perspective but it's what I do.

ganmo

The last time I was ordering tags I checked what the red tags are for...if a ewe looses both tags you're meant to put red tags in her which prevents her being sold in a mart(only to factory)

tom_k

The red tags are only required when the traceability to the holding of origin can't be identified. If you know the original tag number from your records or by elimination then you can apply for yellow replacement tags.

In practice I've never seen the red tags used, probably used by large scale buyers who'll be moving everything to factory anyway.

I've also never seen the blue tag and bolus being used except in Teagasc/research situations or indeed it's even lesser known cousin the pink tag which is (or was) it's replacement when the holding of origin couldn't be identified from the bolus.

Western Pomise

Thanks, out of interest what tags would you order to replace tags in say 4 or 5 yr old ewes that don't have the dearer yellow electronic tags in them (that came in in last few years)

Had enough tags in October to replace the few missing ones but am f***ed if I'm putting the expensive tags into old ladies:)

tom_k

Taken directly from the NSIS information Booklet:

Buying in Older Breeding Sheep
Breeding sheep identified prior to 31st December 2009, with white tags
under the old system can continue to be sold at marts and can be re-
tagged when moving onto another holding with a conventional mart
tag. These animals do not need to be electronically tagged.

arctictree

If a ewe here loses her tags and I know her number, I just put in a yellow tag set and Mark in the register the old number and the new one. Am I doing it right?

ganmo

id say so

J.O. Farmer

ganmo wrote: »

id say so

Sums up the tagging regulations perfectly. That's about as good an answer as anybody could give.
The tagging regulations are a bit like catholicism it's kind of vague and nobody knows what it's all about.

paddysdream

Western Pomise wrote: »

Thanks, out of interest what tags would you order to replace tags in say 4 or 5 yr old ewes that don't have the dearer yellow electronic tags in them (that came in in last few years)

Had enough tags in October to replace the few missing ones but am f***ed if I'm putting the expensive tags into old ladies:)

Strictly speaking ,any ewe born since Jan. 1 2010 should have electronic tag set so all your 4 and 5 year old ewes "should" have been EID tagged.
The Dept. are obsessed with traceability or, more to the point ,the theory of traceability.In reality how many actually check tags or replace and correlate them unless selling or having an inspection?
I know that here if a ewe looses both tags,esp. a bought in one ,then the chances of knowing where she came from etc is gone for good.

Western Pomise

Posted off the sheep census form the other day...over 6 euro to register the letter but sure if it 'guarantees' it getting there its worth it....not like the online messing from last year.Was pleasantly surprised when going through the ewes that none had tags lost since last time checking them out.As paddysdream said though...the whole ' traceability' things is a bit of a misnomer.

Username John

Feck - when is the census due back by?

ganmo

friday

farawaygrass

If I get a sheep with one tag missing, I cut the one tag off and replace with 2 new electronic tags and Write in the sheep register that 1234 was replaced by 5678. Tbh I haven't had a sheep to lose both yet, I suppose by process of elimination you could find it out, unless you had two or more sheep missing tags. In that case I would just retag and write on the register the same as above.
Would I pass an inspection doing it this way?
If you have to retag with the same tag number, first you have to bring in the sheep and go through them and pick out missing tags. Then let sheep off, order the tags and when they arrive being the sheep in again to tag. What a balls of a way. I know you could say to tag them when dosing etc bit from my experience the more jobs you try to do on one way leads to rushing and missing something.

rangler1

farawaygrass wrote: »

If I get a sheep with one tag missing, I cut the one tag off and replace with 2 new electronic tags and Write in the sheep register that 1234 was replaced by 5678. Tbh I haven't had a sheep to lose both yet, I suppose by process of elimination you could find it out, unless you had two or more sheep missing tags. In that case I would just retag and write on the register the same as above.
Would I pass an inspection doing it this way?
If you have to retag with the same tag number, first you have to bring in the sheep and go through them and pick out missing tags. Then let sheep off, order the tags and when they arrive being the sheep in again to tag. What a balls of a way. I know you could say to tag them when dosing etc bit from my experience the more jobs you try to do on one way leads to rushing and missing something.

Yes You will pass an inspection if you tag with a new tag and correlate the numbers