The ability of a person to use the necessary equipment on the farm correctly is very important. Using equipment incorrectly may cause injury to either the animal or the person using the equipment. Damage to the equipment can also be quite costly on a sheep farm, and unnecessary expenses can cause a lot of damage to your pocket.
Training should be done to all staff on the manner to handle certain tools they will need to perform tasks. This will increase the effectivity of work done on the farm, thus also lowering the workload of each employee.
Identification and Marking Techniques
The Animal Identification Act, of 2002 (Act No. 6 of 2002) replaced the old Livestock Brands Act, of 1962 (Act No. 87 of 1962). It is by law compulsory to mark all cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs.
In any breeding program, it is important that all animals must be identified through a permanent mark and each animal’s identity must be unique to avoid any 2 animals carrying the same identity mark.
Some important hints in planning an identification and marking system for your farm:
- Your unique animal identification mark must be registered with the Department of Agriculture.
- Combine your unique registered producers mark with the birth year of the lamb, to mark each sheep with their unique identification number. For example, number 145 / 15 will identify as sheep number 145, born in the year 2015.
- Use separate ears for identifying the sex, for example, the right ear for rams and the left ear for ewes.
- Use metal (brass or aluminium) tags in newborn lambs, as they fit more easily into the small ear and the marks punched into the metal tag also do not fade or the tag does not tend to fall out as easily as a plastic tag.
- Plan the marking season according to the amount of newborn lambs expected and order your pre-printed or punched tags in time.
- Plastic tags can be used to identify sheep from a distance by using tags of different colours, shapes, and sizes.
- Make sure that you have a very good knowledge of your numbering and marking system and that all records are kept up to date in your sheep register.
The most common methods of marking sheep are the following, and each method has its advantages and disadvantages:
- Colour marking.
- Ear notching.
- Ear tagging.
- Tattooing .
- Nose prints and retina scans.
- Neck straps.
- Auction tags or hip tags.
- Temporary paint brand (Not for wool sheep).
The norm and law prescribe that an identification mark will serve as a permanent mark on a sheep. By law, sheep must be marked at the age of 1 month.
How does an identification mark look?
- An identification mark consists of not more than 3 letters of the alphabet or symbols.
- A three-letter mark can be used in 4 different ways.
- Two-letter marks can be used in 2 different ways.
- The characters may not touch one another.
- The same mark may be used on cattle or small stock.
- A chart of a tattoo on sheep may not be larger than 20mm (High or wide).
- The mark may have 1, 2 or 3 characters.
- The characters may not be closer than 12.5 mm or further apart than 19 mm from each other.
- You may put the characters next to each other, below each other or in the form of a triangle, or an upside-down triangle.
Colour Marking
For temporary purposes, it is sometimes necessary to mark sheep with a colouring dye. Take the following into consideration when this method is applied:
- Always use a washable colour marker which has been specially made for this purpose.
- The only mark is on areas which have no wool, like the ears or face. Colour markings on wool can cause severe contamination and must be removed before shearing.