These days the tagger has one of the most important jobs keeping a record of the EID tag sequence. EID is not new technology, but it continues to advance the breeders’ options in both recording and assessing the success of their genetic decisions. 

Here at Gringegalgona our flock ewes are joined in sire syndicate groups and the lambs tagged in a recorded sequence. This helps us to assess groups of rams where it might be worth having another look for stud sires based on performance in the flock.

We do this through a bulk upload of the sire/dam information into our chosen software (We use BreedELITE, however there are other providers available). We use the wand to send classing grades and any visual scores directly to the software in real time (we have seen people classing directly into an autodrafter where the software then does the drafting, this is something we will investigate further!). 

By capturing the pedigree information even at a syndicate level, alongside the key visual traits that we would record on our stud sheep we are able to get the statistical information to take home alongside the classing decisions that we have made on the day. The importance of this is we can then alter our joining or ram purchase decisions based on the visual results we are recording in addition to the data (such as ASBVs) being provided.

The great thing about the hardware and software available to the farmer these days is that they can be used in conjunction with our existing activities. The only difference being the extra data we have available when making decisions on the direction of our flocks.

In our case we utilise it not just to keep track of classing but also different sire characteristics. For instance as the Australian breeding community works on phasing out mulesing we keep notes on the different lambs matings so that at any point in time we can run the ewes through the auto drafter and take off matings that have produced unsuitable animals.

The beauty of this is that we can make this decision at any point without having to reclass and review the ewes themselves as the information has already been captured and stored in the software. If you’re taking wool samples on the sheep this data can also be stored individually so that you could draft them into the shearing shed in their different wool groups.

As mentioned previously this helps us to assess different sire lines for use in the stud, and importantly for the commercial producer it means we can also quickly pull out the lines of ewes that are over performing and give them an individual mating to capitalise on the best genetics without having to wait for the next joining in the stud.

With the help of DNA we can go one step further by taking DNA samples off these to identify the parentage individually. This of course depends on cost, as defined by the number of ewes and the financial impact we expect to gain. 

As I said at the start, EID is not new technology, but its application and usage is certainly gaining momentum, and with its continued rollout it will continue to be at the forefront of advancement for all livestock producers no matter the animal they are breeding.