
Essentially, it is a plastic ear piercing (usually) with a numbered tag like this:

Although I hate the idea of putting such a large hole in my sheep's ears and placing a tag that in most cases hangs out beyond the ear and would easily be ripped out if the animal had its head stuck through a small space - be it fencing or just shrubbery, I thought it was probably the most effective way to identify our sheep. I was wrong. These plastic tags crack and break off. I suppose that after a few years, the plastic becomes brittle and therefor, cracks and breaks to pieces. This is what has happened to some of our tagged sheep.
Case in point ~ Our ewe on the left still has her ear tag. Ewe on the right does not!

Maybe the plastic tags are usually on sheep which are slaughtered so do not need to last so long?
ReplyDelete