Tagging Your Sheep - Best Practices

To best keep track of your sheep, we recommend that all sheep should be double tagged. It is further recommended that the official tag be placed in the left ear and the secondary tag (farm tag) be placed in the right ear. Right handed shearers are less likely to cut off a tag in the left ear. We discourage the use of metal tags.

At this time we also encourage breeders to begin implementing the use of Electronic ID tags in their flocks. EID tags are currently not required in the United States, but they are in Canada. We believe, however, that this soon will be a requirement, as it is already in the cattle industry.

EID tags are readable without a reader. The cost of readers varies by company. Our registrar can provide instructions on how to make a low-cost reader that works with free software and an inexpensive Android tablet. It requires minimal soldering capability, some plumbing parts and some pieces you order from Australia. The tablet can be preloaded with your flock data of all your registered animals. For more information please contact registrar@blackwelsh.org.

Tags can be purchased at the vendors we list in our Supplies Section

Premier1Sheep Supplies www.premier1supplies.com

Valley Vet www.valleyvet.com

EID tags our breeders use include:

Shearwell Tags www.shearwell.com/sheep-tags

Allflex Tags www.allflex.global/na