Lambing Outside and Recording Lambs Simply?

Poorbuthappy · Feb 21, 2024

Six Dogs said:
I was sceptical about them but genuinely loose less than 2%

Is that the 1 piece or 2 piece tags?
I understood Wairere uk use(d) the 1 piece with excellent retention.
I was planning on tagging mine this year with Zee tags.
Whether to use pre printed or write on last 4 digits of the actual tag number

Bury the Trash · Feb 21, 2024

ladycrofter said:
How do you manage?

agrident apr 600 type reader buttons not touch screen works fine when dirty or wet but put in a poly bag if really bad out.
not so aparent in the pic the srceen is crystal clear through it and outdoors , but that's not quite shown with the glare in the photo.
Fits in your pocket safely out the way even when catching holding a lamb etc. screen wont crack like a phone when dropped.

also worth noting / remembering that the likes of Tim W wont be ringing tails and bags just eartagging.

Bury the Trash · Feb 21, 2024

Six Dogs said:
View attachment 1165620

is that one dead ?

Six Dogs · Feb 21, 2024

Poorbuthappy said:
Is that the 1 piece or 2 piece tags?
I understood Wairere uk use(d) the 1 piece with excellent retention.
I was planning on tagging mine this year with Zee tags.
Whether to use pre printed or write on last 4 digits of the actual tag number

It’s the one piece tag-we only use the pre printed ones and once linked to the animal EID nothing else to do!

Tamar · Feb 21, 2024

Levelsman said:
Do those come with 'lifetime' warranty?

I think the warranty has run out with that one !

Bury the Trash said:
is that one dead ?

Just sleeping and lying very still so the photo can be taken !

Bury the Trash · Feb 21, 2024

Tamar said:
I think the warranty has run out with that one !

Just sleeping and lying very still so the photo can be taken !

looks like she's been shot, now that really would make the job a whole lot easier .

Frank-the-Wool said:
Tim
Remember I am trying to improve the quality and value of the wool!!

Select sheepware has a section on wool like ive not seen before, a whole extensive list of quality/grading categories and a page on /at shearing .

unlacedgecko · Feb 21, 2024

Levelsman said:
Do those come with 'lifetime' warranty?

It's certainly lasted for her lifetime

ShooTa · Feb 21, 2024

last 3 sprayed on ewe - then horror! pencil to record lamb tags to ewe number....... and you can fill it out in the cab before you tag them if its a bit wet/cold.

Gulli · Feb 21, 2024

ladycrofter said:
We can't get this far because, for one thing, we can't get around the idea of tagging at birth. The ear is so fragile. I tried years ago. Their ears folded over from the weight. Most tags got ripped out one way or another. I tried the little padlock style Roxan tags one year and they vanished too.

Ours at birth are already getting banded, iodine navel, SpotOn, Vit E injection and spray marked. This is in the field. I don't think OH could also manage punching buttons and entering numbers etc. Stick would be banging around the box on the quad in the rain and mud.

How do you manage?

Frank-the-Wool said:
There has been a number of posts about EID readers and recording and tagging lambs at birth.

Those of us who lamb outside in all weathers, but would like to do this as simply as possible are looking for a few tips.

We already use Shearwell stick readers but these while very robust are very limited in their use. Yes they can be linked to something like Herdwatch/Flockwatch through a mobile phone, but using touch screens on mobile phones in the rain and mud can be an issue.
Which stick reader can be used that will be capable of adding additional information easily and then transfer the information to a robust piece of hardware that is easy to read/see and edit.

Distance of read is always an issue as I don't want to be catching ewes just after they have lambed. What is the best EID reader for distance reading?

What is the best way to record lambs for the long term? Shearwell tags are quite bulky but we have had good retention when put in at a few weeks old, but have no experience of tagging at birth and am nervous about infections. Do people keep the tags in disinfectant? The Roxan tags are smaller, but will they last for 6 or 7 years?

With the grant money being offered under the new FETF I am keen to go for the best and simplest equipment that is idiot proof.

Then looking ahead to weighing lambs, how reliable are fast are panel readers? The early ones were not always effective and were frustrating to use. I don't really want to buy a new weigh crate and would like to retro fit if possible.

Anyone using a TruTest XR 5000 and could this be the answer?

I tag as soon as they are dry (indoors mostly) use shearwell tags and I reckon infection and tag losses from birth to sale are under 1%

Don't do anything special, in fact tags are mainly stored in the ziplock bag they came in until I start that run of tags and then just chucked back in the lambing box.

If you're getting lost of infection problems I'd say you'd be better off looking at your ewes colostrum production than what you store your tags in

Poorbuthappy · Feb 21, 2024

Gulli said:
I tag as soon as they are dry (indoors mostly) use shearwell tags and I reckon infection and tag losses from birth to sale are under 1%

Don't do anything special, in fact tags are mainly stored in the ziplock bag they came in until I start that run of tags and then just chucked back in the lambing box.

If you're getting lost of infection problems I'd say you'd be better off looking at your ewes colostrum production than what you store your tags in

I've had a lot more trouble with infection tagging ewe lambs post weaning than ever I do tagging at 24hrs old.
Generally do them all around 24hrs old (lambing outside) but the odd year when I've done them older I've seen a lot more infection.

Blue. · Feb 21, 2024

I generally tag mine at weaning,you know who’s staying or not by then.

Bury the Trash · Feb 21, 2024

Tim W said:
How do you find the X6 in the wet?

fine if he drives carefully ? :scratchhead:

1987_jaguar_xj6_16022562523489a97de541987-Jaguar-XJ6-Sovereign-2.jpg

ringi · Feb 21, 2024

ShooTa said:
last 3 sprayed on ewe - then horror! pencil to record lamb tags to ewe number....... and you can fill it out in the cab before you tag them if its a bit wet/cold.

Could do worce then take a photo of the ewe sprayed number and lamb tag before leaving cab. (Sort photos by time when inputting data.)

TGM · Feb 21, 2024

All the agrident readers allow full recording directly on the reader with none of the phone issues, wet screen difficult to read, poor battery life. I have a customer with 3500 outdoor lambing easycare sheep. Recording accuracy is around 98% or better. It's not that difficult. 4 apr600s do the job. Performance improvement is well worth the work.

TGM · Feb 21, 2024

Select sheepware has an intensive wool recording section. Designed for morino type sheep, something like 40 plus data items for each fleece. Wool that is laboratory tested can have the results imported from csv. When shearing select sheepware can print a bar coded card to go with the fleece so lab results get paired up to the correct ewe. The barcode can also be read into a trutest scale in order to record the fleece weight. I don't know of anyone in uk or Ireland recording wool using our system to this level, we had it running also in Falklands but the breeder there has retired now. You need to be lab testing the wool from every fleece.

TGM · Feb 21, 2024

3rd topic on this thread. XR5000. XR5000 can store and display 100 data items for each sheep, if you need to be able to display a lot of data items when weighing then this scale is excellent. Our system generates about 12 data items max that go into an Xr5000. We could go to 100 but nobody has ever asked for more than we currently have, sex breed age sire group pregnancy status animal type last condition score and a few more. XR5000 also allows multiple criteria autodrafting. So if you have a 5 way autodrafter for example you can set it to wean the lambs from the ewes and also separate the male lambs from the female while also drafting our the heaviest male lambs. That's what multiple criteria means, draft by type (ewe, lamb) and by lamb sex and by male lamb weight all in one pass through the auto drafter. There's a video on our website of a user drafting like this, one operator running 2000 plus ewes and lambs through in a day. At the beginning they were all together and when done ewes are separated from lambs, and male lambs are separated from female lambs . That's what an XR5000 is capable of. Provided of course that you have software that can create a data file with these sort of data items to put into the XR5000. An Xr5000 with panel reader should be able to handle 500 to 800 lambs per hour provided your autodraft gates can open and close fast enough. An XR5000 with an agrident AWR300 attached to outside of crate should be able to handle 400 lambs per hour with a human opening and closing the crate gates. You need either a good dog or other humans to be feeding the lambs into the race fast enough to achieve this, it can be done with one dog one human and one good crate.

TGM · Feb 21, 2024

That last post it was actually a psion with an extension stick attached to a weight crate with one female human, one dog and a good crate that achieved 400 lambs per hour. Video is on our website, 6 lambs in 50 seconds = 7 per minute = 420 per hour. Awr300 is just as fast and has better read distance than psion.

JD-Kid · Feb 22, 2024

got a XR 5000 good head unit for what we are doing and can set up alot of drafts if info in the system
do a fair bit on spreadsheets as well if going on weight gains over more times though scales
if you are not single sire mating ewes I would go to DNA testing just recording the ewes without knowing the sire fully yer only reading 1/2 the book

Lambing Outside and Recording Lambs Simply?

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