Tagging Lambs at Birth

[MF135]

Planning to tag lambs at birth this year and record mothers etc on herdwatch. I'm looking for tag recommendations, I usually use shearwell but the retention has been horrendous and I think that the pin may be a bit big for day old lambs. I’m thinking about using Roxan but wondering what others would recommend?

 

[Wooly]

Lambing Outside and Recording Lambs Simply?

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...

thefarmingforum.co.uk

 

[TexelBen]

I struggled with roxan tags, and the retention was no better, so went back to shearwell

 

[Guleesh]

Tag lambs at around day old with shearwell tags, just a single numbered tag though, not eid. tag losses have been less than 1 in 100 from lambing to weaning when they get tags cut out and eid put in. sometimes tex cross lambs ears are a bit floppy so leave them an extra day or two till they standing up.

 

[Alistair]

Tag all mine at day old. Castrated males get Roxan TagFaster slaughter tag and the females get a Roxan EasyTag management tag. Last year only lost 1 EasyTag and will be using them again this year.

 

[gatepost]

Roxan tagfaster for slaughter and breeding pairs, when you don't need to ever read them manually, gone back to Shearwell atm for readable pairs where required, but retention not good.

 

[Alistair]

Should had added. If asked Roxan will print on their slaughter tags the sequential number for visual recording purposes.

 

[mixedfmr]

Shearwell here, no problems, slaughter and double tags for keeper gimmers twins, then reject if no good, ok from birth but if used at 6 month plus I can have a problem getting them in
No losses untill they get to 2 shear. And I think retention has inproved over the years
A good size for a visual check, were as Roxan a bit small for that

 

[xtedbear]

I used roxan tags for some years but got fed up with bad retention so moved to Shearwell but had trouble with them cracking on the female side, spoke to Shearwell about it and have been trialing different types of plastic for them for the last four or five years. We tag all the lambs at a day old and are matched to their mothers. The biggest problem with tagging young lambs can be increased joint ill, if we weren't a preference recorded flock i wouldn't tag so young.