![]() ![]() If you're to use a metal scrapie tag on your dairy goat(s), be sure to place it in the left ear.Plastic scrapie tags are also preferred for dairy goats that require shearing.Avoid any prominent veins when attaching the tags to the ears as hitting them might harm to goat and lead to infection.This entry was posted in AgriLife Extension, Livestock, Sheep & Goats and tagged AgriLife Extension, Reid Redden, Scrapie, Sheep. “So to reiterate, if you’re going to switch from plastic tags to metal tags, please put them in the proper location and that’s in the top side of the sheep’s left ear away from the head,” Redden said.įor more information, contact Redden at 32, source AgriLife TODAY | Expert: Misplaced metal scrapie ear tags could pose risk to sheep shearer, sheepįor more information regarding news from the Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Texas A&M University, please contact Maggie Tucker at or (979) 845-1542. Redden, a shearer himself, said the sheep shearer is more likely to see the tag there and avoid hitting it as opposed to placing it in the right ear close to the head – where it’s hard to see because the wool has grown out around the head and over the ear covering the tag. “Ideal placement would have the tag inserted into the middle to the outside of the ear – not close to the head – where it is more visible, thus preventing the tag from being caught in the comb.” “So there’s no confusion, it’s the ear on the left side of the animal’s head as you stand behind it,” Surber wrote in a news release distributed by the association. ![]() ![]() Lisa Surber, with the raw wool services arm of the American Sheep Industry Association headquartered in Denver, Colorado, recommends the tag be placed in the animal’s left ear. “That handpiece is running at about 3,000 revolutions per minute and if that metal tag gets caught up in that comb, it can lock up and jar the handpiece out of the sheep shearer’s hand, which could cause injury to the shearer, sheep or both.”ĭr. “However, if ranchers switch from using a plastic tag to a metal tag, they do need to pay some attention to where that tag is placed, because metal tags inadvertently hit by sheep shearers while they are shearing do pose a risk,” he said. “This program has done a great job of cleaning up scrapie, and we are on the verge of eradicating scrapie in the United States due to USDA-APHIS’s work, so we applaud them for that,” Redden said. While the metal tags are free, plastic tags still can be purchased from approved suppliers. Scrapie tags are used to trace the disease in sheep and goats to their point of origin anywhere in the U.S. Scrapie is a prion disease of the central nervous system in sheep. Department of Agriculture-Animal Plant Health Inspection Service recently quit providing free plastic scrapie program ear tags to the sheep and goat community as a cost-saving measure. They are, however, still offering the less expensive metal tags free to producers. Reid Redden, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service state sheep and goat specialist at San Angelo, said the U.S. (Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service photo by Steve Byrns)ĭr. Metal ear tags for sheep and goats such as the one pictured, can pose a threat to shearer and sheep if improperly placed. ![]()
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