How To Register Your Sheep
In order to register your sheep with the ABWMSA they need to be tagged with an Official Federal ID tag. This may sound complicated, but it is not.
Contact your local USDA agent (https://offices.sc.egov.usda.gov/locator/app) or the Agriculture Department in your State’s government. They will provide you with a premises ID number.
If you are having a hard time locating the right person or agency, see if the state or local sheep breeder’s association or a fellow sheep breeder can point you in the right direction.
The USDA has a program to acquire federal tags for free, or you can order them through the vendors listed on our website. There is no requirement yet to use electronically readable tags, but we believe that is coming.
We recommend tagging both ears, the official Federal ID tag in the left ear (this can be electronically readable or not), and the Farm Tag in the right ear.
Assuming that your lambs are born to registered Black Welsh Mountain Sheep, the ABWMSA has a two-step process. The first is to birth notify your lambs, this is not registration, but a way for us to keep track of how many Black Welsh are actually born. Birth Notification is Free. The second step is to register your animals, a very simple process once lambs are birth notified. There is no need to register all lambs born. If you are breeding an animal, it should be registered and if you are selling it as a registered Black Welsh Mountain Sheep. Registration per animal is between $3 and $10, depending on the age of the sheep.
Birth notification and registration can be completed in one of two ways. One is to go to our Online Registry, sign in and follow the directions. (Step-by Step directions for Birth Notification are here, Step-by-Step directions for Registration are here. The second way is to fill out the form linked here and email it to registrar@blackwelsh.org. You can pay for registrations in two ways. Either in the online store at www.blackwelsh.org/store on the website or send a check to our mailing address. Registrations will be processed after payment is received.
Keeping track of all our creatures is a lot of work and the ABWMSA is hoping to make it as easy as possible. If you are having problems navigating the technology, please reach out and we will help.