Marking sheep for Colour blind father

Sendhelp

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Scotland
Colour blindness is not uncommon in the farming community, my dad being one of them. I work with him with the sheep and he can't see the marking on them, he can see some colours but not if there too close together. How do another people work around that?
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
I used shapes instead of colours, eg mark with a line across, a line along, a dash or a headmark

I also used to attempt to have them in with short wool or off the shears, because a woolly sheep is a woolly sheep to my eyes, tended to see the mark on them just as they go by me, which is frustrating in the extreme as no flow is possible

(then I turned the sheep into dairy heifers with tags in their ears, if you wonder why the past tense)
 
It will help to identify which colours he confuses. Red/Green is most common for example. Personally, I don't see the proper amount of red so I sometimes struggle to see laser levels and pointers during presentations.

Moving to a system of shapes or dots may be more foolproof but you might also be able to change to a system of colours than he can distinguish more easily.
 

Anymulewilldo

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cheshire
We don’t use yellow at all. After 2 weeks on the sheep I can’t see it. As above, once red/green has faded or in poor light I can’t differentiate between them.
Green initial mid back = flock mark
Red line on neck = always cull
green spot on rump = triplet
Green spot on neck = single

ideally we’d swap too blue as I can see that really well. But we’ve been green since Grandad moved too where we are now 40 years ago. Everyone knows our mark and the nearest sheep neighbours on both sides are all blue so that’s not really an option!!
It’s a bugger when I have too ask brother too shed ewes for lambing. He laughs and calls me “blind Pugh” for the day. Git.
 

Longlowdog

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Aberdeenshire
I'm blue-green colour blind if the colours are of a similar intensity. It must annoy the mart but I use a lot of red. When it's scanning time and all I need is a visual indicator it is whatever colour is to hand and a blob on the top of the front shoulder is a single, no mark is twins and on top of the hips is trips. Any quads when I was marking for other folk got a Smilie (so there is one happy soul in the shed) or a C.N.D sign (make chops not war).
 

Sendhelp

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Scotland
It will help to identify which colours he confuses. Red/Green is most common for example. Personally, I don't see the proper amount of red so I sometimes struggle to see laser levels and pointers during presentations.

Moving to a system of shapes or dots may be more foolproof but you might also be able to change to a system of colours than he can distinguish more easily.
I think red green he has said in past that he can't see them well. Problem i am having is the neighbours marking colour are all too similar too the colours i have and would not be clear enough.

A system of shapes seems to be the answers. I need to mark culled sheep, lambs and breeding. Then anything of note(ill problem tup etc)
 

Estate fencing.

Member
Livestock Farmer
I was going to say it seems more common in farming folk that I know, then I thought that probably because I only really know farming folk. 😂
 

Danllan

Member
Location
Sir Gar / Carms
Colour blindness is not uncommon in the farming community, my dad being one of them. I work with him with the sheep and he can't see the marking on them, he can see some colours but not if there too close together. How do another people work around that?
A cousin's husband is red-green colour blind, he uses black and blue only - not sure why exactly... :unsure:

Can't tell you all the 'code' he uses, but a spot on the neck marks rams out, and spots, circles and stripes on the shoulder, mid back or rump denote other things of import depending on which is used and which direction the lines point.

The math's gives him a hell of a lot of possible combinations even with just one colour; I think he's running about 800 ewes, and it's mostly a one man show, so clearly it's proof that it can be done. (y)


Digressing, because it's totally unrelated to farming, but colour blind observers have been used by the RAF to spot enemy placements. The cam' used looked more or less like the vegetation around to most people, but to some colour blind people there was a stark difference between natural 'greens' and those used to try and conceal the emplacements - discovered by accident, but very useful.
 

Jackov Altraids

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Devon
Another advantage of being colour blind is that it can give you much better sight in low light/ darkness.
Anyone colour blind should try corrective glasses. They don't work for everyone but for many it is a relevation;
 

primmiemoo

Member
Location
Devon
Find the colours that really stand out for him. If red-green aren't registered, then blue and orange stand out. Purple is OK if dark. Yellow can be a grey area, for some reason. Black hasn't taken off, for some reason, not even for temporary wax marks. Some green raddles do stand out, but they're on the blue-green scale.

Wot others say about shapes and codes. Just ask that the same colour marker is used for them in each group of sheep so as to be intelligible to others!
 

Danllan

Member
Location
Sir Gar / Carms
Another advantage of being colour blind is that it can give you much better sight in low light/ darkness...
Something I learnt on joining the Army was that we can all improve our night vision in one simple way, and it's not eating carrots - something I believe the Germans actually fell for. :ROFLMAO:

Obviously nobody will be able to see in complete darkness, some ambient light is necessary. But it's all down to looking obliquely rather than directly at things.

Because of the position of the optic nerve etc. we have an obvious and literal blind spot at one point in each eye. If, instead of looking directly at e.g. the tree thirty yards away, you look directly a couple of tree-widths* to the side, you are still able to see the tree with your peripheral vision.

And, since the corresponding peripheral area of the eye is not encumbered with nerves etc., you have more receptors there and can get a better image.

It's also another bit of superb evidence for evolution rather than so-called 'intelligent design', much like the recurrent laryngeal nerves in giraffe. :)



*My brain being slow, it just occurred to me that trees are not all the same width... :banghead:, so look a foot or so to the side of the object in question.
 
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Farmer_Joe

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
The North
Another advantage of being colour blind is that it can give you much better sight in low light/ darkness.
Anyone colour blind should try corrective glasses. They don't work for everyone but for many it is a relevation;
Ha ha they look great, did the test too apparently mines normal, some of the reviews are great for them.
 

Sendhelp

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Scotland
Find the colours that really stand out for him. If red-green aren't registered, then blue and orange stand out. Purple is OK if dark. Yellow can be a grey area, for some reason. Black hasn't taken off, for some reason, not even for temporary wax marks. Some green raddles do stand out, but they're on the blue-green scale.

Wot others say about shapes and codes. Just ask that the same colour marker is used for them in each group of sheep so as to be intelligible to others!
I scoffed at white marker i found yesterday but if your marking a lot of black sheep, it is the best marker really. Black would be great because everyone can see it. Even in the non farming Community Colour blindness is fairly common.
 

Farmer_Joe

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
The North
i have black white yellow etc, i usually use them mostly for marking culls so there easier to sort at market, having mules a black dot can just look like a black bit of wool :unsure:

yellow handy if you wanna mark them for something short term, use it with stores that will be off to auction as i usually only need it to be nice and clear for a few weeks.
 

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