# Ear Tags



## SheepGirl (Sep 13, 2013)

Just a little question to encourage some conversation over in the sheep section... 

What is your favorite ear tag design and why?


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## SheepGirl (Sep 13, 2013)

I prefer the triangular over rectangular ear tags.

With me, even though I have a small flock that I can tell who is who just by looking at their faces or their bodies, I still like to be able to read their ear tag from a distance (especially when we had a larger flock and a couple of ewes would all look the exact same).

Sometimes the rectangular tags would get stuck in the ear, making reading the ear tag impossible. The reason we used ear tags (identification from a distance) was no longer being applied, even though we could still read the tag to see who they were up close.

I'm not sure if getting stuck in the ears was due to tag placement or sheer (un)luck.

I have one ewe with both rectangular tags and she's never had them stuck inside her ear.






On the other hand, at least one tag would always be stuck in the ear.





I guess this would be okay if you were selling sheep as pets that needed a scrapie ID tag... it gets hidden in the ear so you can't see (like the lamb above).

But these are by far my favorite because they are easy to read and the numbers aren't ever hidden. Plus I like the look of a sheep with two ear tags hanging down


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## Roving Jacobs (Sep 13, 2013)

I find it so interesting to see how many different methods and preferences there are when it comes to ear tags depending on what the farmer needs. Excellent topic.

This year I used teeny tiny 1"x1" tags from Premier and have liked them pretty well so far. The back side has my scrapie info on it and on the front I wrote in the individual number because I use a number system to keep track of birth year, sire, and birth order. Mine are almost all registered so I wanted to be able to keep a constant number with them even if they lost their original scrapie tag and needed a new scrapie number. I like tiny tags because I have small lambs and I hate the look of saggy ears for months and months until they grow into them.

They look tiny in the big romeldale ears:




But take up a whole little Jacob ear:




The registered cormo ewes also have tags with their reg numbers on them because the registry sent me some. The originals were metal clip ones but I hate that style so I had plastic ones made with the same info instead.




I don't rely on numbers to identify individuals from a distance so having big tags isn't necessary for me. I can tell boys from girls from a distance based on tag placement (R ears for girls, L ears for boys) and the different colors are to differentiate between breeds.

Haven't lost any of these tags so far, but the fuschia on the romeldale tags has faded quite a bit already from the sun.


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## CritterZone (Sep 16, 2013)

Has anyone had a problem with the tags being ripped out?  We tagged our lambs around 3 - 4 months, maybe a little later than most because of problems with the tags... Anyhow, several of the lambs immediately started rubbing on the fence and about 6 pulled their tags out (only the ewe lambs we plan to keep, none of the rams headed for market).  Either the scrapie tag, the farm tag, or in one case, both. 

I thought maybe it was the placement on some of the tags, although I was careful to be consistent throughout the process and not everyone lost them.  Also, I look at the photos posted here and see that some are close to the head, but some are a bit further out.  We tagged ours about midway because we have Jacob Sheep and the horns can obstruct the tags when they are close to the head.

The tags are from Premier so I don't think the tag design is the problem, but I am pretty frustrated by the loss.  I would like to try to figure this out before lambing in the spring.  This year we will tag when we band tails.  I hope the younger lambs are more interested in eating and sleeping than rubbing their tags out.


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## Roving Jacobs (Sep 16, 2013)

Mine haven't ripped theirs out or tried to rub them on anything but I have noticed the premier tags can be a little tricky to really lock together well, especially if you're using the free applicator the government sends out rather than their applicator. Testing the alignment a couple times before clamping it for real and really squeezing hard took care of those issues for me.


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## CritterZone (Sep 17, 2013)

Roving Jacobs said:
			
		

> Mine haven't ripped theirs out or tried to rub them on anything but I have noticed the premier tags can be a little tricky to really lock together well, especially if you're using the free applicator the government sends out rather than their applicator. Testing the alignment a couple times before clamping it for real and really squeezing hard took care of those issues for me.


My first thought was that they were not completely locked, even though I checked each tag before we let the lambs loose.  We found 5 or 6 of the tags and they were still locked together as a set, so we are sure they are ripping the tags through by rubbing on the fence (we found 3 on the fence line).


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## EllieMay (Sep 17, 2013)

Roving Jacobs said:
			
		

> Mine haven't ripped theirs out or tried to rub them on anything but I have noticed the premier tags can be a little tricky to really lock together well, especially if you're using the free applicator the government sends out rather than their applicator. Testing the alignment a couple times before clamping it for real and really squeezing hard took care of those issues for me.


Yep! I had the same issue with the Premier tags using the Scrapie tag applicator.
I bought the EasyTag II, Size 1 and it is easy enough to read from a distance.


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## secuono (Sep 18, 2013)

I prefer and like no tags, so no sheep of mine has them until they sell. I don't see a point in causing them pain and future pain when they rip the thing out. I've rarely seen any sheep with too wooly of ears for a tattoo. Been thinking of tattooing my lambs in the future.


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## purplequeenvt (Sep 18, 2013)

We use the same tags as EllieMay does. We start with a small plastic swivel tag when the lambs are 1-3 days old and then switch it out with the larger tag once we've figured out if we are going to register/keep/sell/slaughter each lamb. The market lambs keep their "lamb tags and don't get an official tag. 

For small crossbred operations one could easily get away with not using tags, but for folks with larger numbers of sheep and/or purebred registered animals, some form of ID is necessary. Tattoos are an option, but tags are much simpler as well as more visible. Also, tattoos have a tendency to fade and be difficult to read after a while. 

My sister and I know each sheep without looking at tags (we currently have 60 something sheep), but having that number in the ear makes it easier for someone else to come into the flock and know who is who.


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## boothcreek (Sep 18, 2013)

I personally like tags as small as possible. My herd is small enough tho that I can distinguish each animal from afar no problem. I preferred the small pink metal clips that was mandatory by the Gov of Canada if sheep ever leave your property. Sadly those have been discontinued and replaced by slightly larger electronic plastic clips. I haven't lost any tags to being torn out yet in the 5 1/2 yrs that I had sheep. My sheep have small ears and even the slim little plastic clips look garishly big on them(and they are YELLOW - EWWWW  ), I like to tag the lambs when they are a month or two old and I tag really close to the head at the top of the ear, usually when they prick their ears looking straight at you they are almost hidden from sight. Any sheep that don't need to be registered and will most likely never leave here I go without tags(my mouflons for example, only the bought in Ewe and Ram have tags, the 2 ewes born here do not).


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## Ruus (Sep 18, 2013)

All of my sheep had mini rectangular tags when I got them.







The man I bought them from doesn't tag sheep unless he sells them, so all four had had the tags put in the morning they were brought here. Within 48 hours the only sheep left with a tag was the ram, and I'm sure that's only because his ear is completely encircled with horn, so it would be hard for him to get the tag caught on anything or rub/scrape it against anything. Now I have two ewes with scarred ears, one ewe with an ear completely ripped in half, and no ewes with tags. So those were rather a bust, but I liked that they were small and unobtrusive. I'd hate to use the triangular tags, as my sheep are so small that even mini triangular tags are too heavy for the lambs' ears to support, and look ginormous even on adults. I'm not sure what I'll do for tags when I go to sell the lambs.  Although... I suppose I could get around it by simply NOT selling any of the lambs... *plots to keep all the lambies!*


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## n8ivetxn (Nov 9, 2013)

I use the same tag as Roving Jacobs, with the Scrapie ID on one side and the animal number on the other. My lambs have such tiny ears, even the little tags look awful. One of my ram lambs was slowly tearing his out, so I caught him and cut it off, waiting for the replacement now.... I think it must have been irritating him and he was rubbing it on something, he just wouldn't let it heal up. Next time I'll go further up the ear, hopefully it'll hold better.

The members of the flock that I bought have the triangle shape, small tag. I like it too.

I don't like to tag, that has to be painful. So, having one tag with all the necessary info is good for me.


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