sheep tagging - a welfare issue?

I have already stated in a past posting that by law all sheep have to be tagged. Those destined for pies just require one tag, those destined to remain on farms as breeding sheep require two tags.

If a sheep is found to have lost a tag the farmer is required by law to replace that missing tag or pair of tags.

Now I have my ears pierced and over the years I have lost many earrings out of my lugs. Pull your jumper off over your head and hey presto! gone, left with just one lug ring, t'other never to be seen again, mainly due to the fact that it generally takes me days to realise I lost one in the first place.

So sheep don't pull their jumpers off over their heads so they won't have the problem I experience, they just have other problems. Sheep have wool and it can indeed get tangled on their person, they also like to stick their heads through wire fences, they like to feed at hay hecks, they traipse through heather, lie down in dense undergrowth, wander into woods, rub up against things including each other, especially when in the sheep pens. They have a hundred and one ways of managing to lose a tag. They also have the trouble of flies, which irritate them, make them flick their ears around, scrub their heads, kick up with their hind feet - anything to dislodge the pests.

I Know! I take some strange photos! The above is an ear, a sheeps ear no less, a normal ear, a healthy ear, it is the last one you're likely to see on this posting - be warned!

Blackfaced sheep are not meant to have droopy, floppy lugs. Their ears ought to be pinned back behind their horns and pointing skywards not drooping forwards.

This poor soul had little option but to hang a lug. Having been tagged a year previous she had been doing well, until there was some warm steamy weather and headflies became a problem, her incessant flicking of her ears against her horn would cause the skin to break, the headfly would then get excited to a feverish pitch, she would flick her ear even more and before she knew it she had a very sore and very infected ear.

This sheep had also been bothered by flies, the tag is actually still in the ear, just encrusted with infection.

Was this sheep luckier? She has lost her tag, it has ripped her ear, probably she caught it on something and tore it away from the flesh of her lug which it was pierced through. Unlike the earrings which I wear, which have a removable back her earring is meant to be a permanent fixture, it won't come to pieces, it will come out in one whole piece - torn or ripped out, She had obviously had an infection as well, the hair missing off her ear says it all, although healing up nicely she will have had a rough time of it.

Another who had lost a tag, healing nicely?

Upon closer inspection there is obviously still a fair amount of infection in the ear, I wouldn't like my lugs to be oozing puss like that.

Who would be a sheep hey?

So? Is tagging a welfare issue? It most definitely can be, and unfortunately it is the responsibility of the farmer not those who lay down the regulations to ensure their sheep don't suffer from welfare issues.

When noises have been made it is the farmer who is told he doesn't do the job correctly, it is the farmer who foots the bills for the antibiotics and replacement tags, it is the sheep which can suffer and once ears are healed find themselves having a replacement tag re inserted into their ears, they will have no peace from the dreaded tag until they are dead, and even then, they must have a tag in their ear for the dead cart to collect them.

Maybe our sheep ought to join the maasai people?

tagging sheep. EID

Tags. Destined for sheep, their ears no less. A legal necessity and one thought by many to be an unnecessary necessity.

It often seems that since 2001 the world has gone potty, and probably going dafter by the minute. EU regulations came in force post foot and mouth which required all sheep to be tagged, Traceability was the word used. A single tag with the holding number had to be inserted into the sheeps ear. Eventually it became a single tag with holding number and individual number per sheep.

We are moving on in the world and since 2010 it has been necessary for all breeding sheep to have a double tag. TWO tags, both with the holding number and corresponding individual number, to add insult to injury one of these tags must also be fitted with an electronic gadget.

EID. Electronic identification. Which by law must be done to sheep which are to remain in the flock within 9 months of birth. So it was, Shep found herself tagging sheep and not for the first or last time this year either.

Sheep weren't meant to have tags stuck in their lugs, they don't like having tags stuck in their lugs either.

Sheep don't have a say in the matter and neither do the farmers seemingly, 'tis the EU who think 'tis good for the sheep industry to spend about 80p on each sheep to ensure it can be traced.

There are choices in colours, however the electronic tag is always yellow.

As said each pair of tags has an individual number, god help you if you don't concentrate and manage to muddle up the numbers, they must be the same on each pair fitted into each sheep.

Should anything go wrong one tag will have to be cut out of the ear and the pair discarded. In the above photo the tag was misfired, finding it clipped together without the ear in the middle, the yellow tag had already been successfully inserted into the ear which meant it had to be cut out. 80p wasted, a cost of £1.60 to tag one sheep.

Then there are the tags which fail to work properly, it is sometimes possible to straighten these out again and manage to reuse them, however on this particular day Shep had two which refused to co operate. Another £1.60 down the drain.

All tags used have to be recorded, any found missing are meant to be replaced, more paperwork for the farmers, more expense for them too. Being electronic means they can be electronically read, which is indeed the whole intention, it won't be long before we're not just handling sheep in the sheep pens but we'll all have to have a computer on hand as well.

Sheep destined for slaughter just require one tag. The first thing a sheep loses at the slaughter house is it's head, which includes its ears - how does that then help the traceability of the meat when the tag has been chucked in the bin full of heads?