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Slaughter Lambs

Sat, 20/02/2010 - 1:09pm — Macdonald Partners

We have been on the trial since 2008 and have been double tagging all the seasons lambs. On the covering note it says all slaughter animals must have a single batch tag. Does this mean we cannot double tag lambs that may end up going for slaughter? Ewe lambs will be double tagged but we may decide to send some of these to slaughter at the end of the year.

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Tue, 20/04/2010 - 2:22pm — fgwhitelaw

Identification of slaughter lambs

We sell all of our lambs privately for domestic freezers and all are sold at well under 1 year old. However, for public health and traceability purposes we need to have them separately identified, so under present regulations they will have to be doudle-tagged. The slaughter tag option is of no use to us as the tag is printed only with the flock number, with no separate individual id. But we are told by the makers that the electronic chip inside does contain an individual id, and this will be read by the slaughterhouse reader and presumably can be printed on the kill sheet So why can't the slaughter tag have this indivual id printed on it as well, so that we can avoid the double-tagging of these young animals?

Fri, 23/04/2010 - 10:44pm — administrator

The information you have been

The information you have been given is correct. Scottish single slaughter tags do contain the Flock number and the individual animal ID - but you need an EID reader to read the individual (animal) number. The outside of the tag has only got the Flock number printed on it - it makes individaul identification without an EID reader impossible as you say - it also make sequential tagging impossible as well.

The reason for this has been stated to be that if the animals have the "Full Identifier" written on the outside of the single slaughter tag then you would be obliged to record each single tagged slaughter lamb separately for movement purposes, and couldnt do batch movements. There would however be nothing to prevent you having another number printed on that single tag which would allow you to identify the lamb ( such as a Management number).

It would probably be for me to express an opinion - but I would encourage farther discussion on this matter!
It is real practical problems such as this and how to resolve them that the Scottish Pilot and this forum is all about - not just the techy issues!

You are not alone in finding this a problem.

:-) :-)

Admin

Sat, 20/02/2010 - 4:31pm — administrator

Response to Macdonald Partners.

Hi,

From page 6 of the Guidance Notes 'Sheep and Goat Identification and Traceability - Guidance for Keepers in Scotland' you should receive shortly (if not already):
"Identification and numbers for slaughter lambs
These animals are identified by a single electronic batch tag, known as a slaughter tag, although you can use two identifiers as for fully EID identified animals if you want to. The electronic slaughter tag only has the flockmark printed on the outside of the tag."

Hope that helps, but please let us know if it doesn't