Tagging breaches and insufficient maintenance of sheep animal identification documentation are significant issues identified on an annual basis in Department of Agriculture cross-compliance inspections.

Following on from this week’s user help guide released to help farmers comply with the Sheep Improvement Scheme (SIS), we revisit recommendations to help keep sheep farmers on the right side of the law.

These are listed below.

Inspection process

Typically, most cross-compliance sheep inspections will have 48 hours’ notice, as sheep must be penned and made available for inspection.

There are three main focal areas under the animal identification inspection process - inspection of the flock register, check on dispatch documents and an inspection of sheep to count numbers present and check for missing tags or incorrectly tagged sheep.

The following is an overview of what an inspector is looking for in each section.

Flock register

An inspector will possess the records of previous sheep census applications. These will be cross-referenced with existing numbers and the flock register to ensure it is being actively maintained and kept up to date.

An inspector will also have records of tag numbers ordered from tag manufacturers and will check to see that tasks such as tagging or movements (purchases, sales, deaths, etc) are recorded properly.

Dispatch documents

Farmers are obliged to retain dispatch document booklets and copies of dispatch documents for bought-in sheep under national sheep identification system (NSIS) rules for a period of three years.

Inspectors will check that movements of sheep moving on to or leaving the holding are recorded in the flock register and also that documents are being filled out satisfactorily, including notifying your local district veterinary office (DVO) of farm-to-farm movements.

The purchaser of sheep is required to send the pink copy of the dispatch document to their DVO. Rules must also be adhered to with regard to temporary movements off the farm.

Inspection

As mentioned previously, an inspector will have the results of previous census applications.

They will count the number of sheep on the holding and check that it collates with the numbers recorded in the flock register.

A sample of tag numbers will also need to be read - again, to ensure that the sheep are present in the flock register.

With regard to tagging, NSIS rules state that “in general, lambs must be identified (tagged) by nine months of age (six months, if intensively reared) or on leaving the holding of origin, whichever is the earlier date. In general, sheep in Ireland are not reared intensively so nine months or on leaving the holding of origin (whichever earliest) will apply in almost all cases”.

Replacing lost tags

The move to mandatory electronic identification for sheep leaving a holding leaves only two real options to address lost tags.

Where an animal is missing a tag, then a new tag with the corresponding tag number to the tag the sheep currently possesses can be ordered.

This is generally a more expensive option than the alternative, as it requires more input from tag manufacturers.

Alternatively, the remaining tag can be removed and a new set of electronic identification tags (electronic and conventional tag) can be applied, with the tag change recorded and correlated in the flock register.