Sheep ear tags for easy identification and accurate record keeping
Author: johnkumar | Posted: 17.12.2011In sheep farming, record keeping is important to make informed decisions regarding different matters concerning the farm. In many countries it is compulsory to keep detailed records of all farm animals including sheep.
Thus all sheep have to be identified with an identification mark that is permanent, does not easily tear or get damaged, can be seen and recognized from a distance and which can be easily put on the sheep. However, since all these qualities cannot be found in any one of the tags available, other options have to be considered. Ear tags are the most commonly used identification sheep tags.
Different kinds of Ear tags:
There are different types of sheep tags that are used for lambs and sheep. There is a wide variety of shapes, sizes and materials like plastic, brass, aluminum that come as buttons or rotary tags or swivel tags that are used. DNA tags and radio frequency identification tags are also now quite popular and are used for their particular purpose.
Small brass ear tags are best used for smaller animals like newborn lambs as they do not tear away. Metal ear tags are cheapest but there is always fear of them being torn away. Plastic sheep tags are available in different shapes, sizes and colors which makes identification from a distance possible.
Modern Sheep Tags:
Other types of sheep tags include DNA ear tags where the skin removed during punching the ear to insert the tag is stored in a small vial that can be retrieved when DNA analysis is required. The micro chip with a copper antenna is inserted in the plastic ear tag. This radio frequency identifier (RFID) sheep tags can be inserted in the ear and is useful for a number of reasons, especially in finding the location of strayed animals. Sometimes sheep tags can be microchips inserted directly under the skin of the sheep and there is no fear of losing the sheep tags or damaging them in any way. Some ingestible microchip based sheep tags are also becoming popular now.
Sheep tags can also be in the form of tags attached to neck chains. These were used commonly a long time ago and with better tags such as ear tags available, they are seldom used now.
There is a definite method as to where the ear tags should be placed in sheep. There are also many kinds of tools to make process of putting on ear tags easy and fast especially if the flock is large. Some such tools are automatic ear tags applicators, manual ear tags applicators, ear tags permanent markers and many more.
Sheep ear tags have come a long way as useful IDs for sheep and they will continue to be used in the future.
About Author:
John kumar is author of this article and writes about pets news. For further details about wormers and horse wormers please visit the website.
John kumar is author of this article and writes about pets news. For further details about wormers and horse wormers please visit the website.
Click here to return original format