WETASKIWIN, Alta. – With the swipe of an ear tag, Martin Kaiser can tell the age of a ewe, how many lambs it has raised, if any died, the last time it received antibiotics or if it has mastitis.
It wasn’t easy plugging in data on every one of his 1,500 ewes or learning how to use the electronic identification equipment, but the Alberta sheep producer wouldn’t go back to recording sheep information in a coil notebook stuffed in his shirt pocket.
Sometime soon, a dozen more Alberta sheep producers will receive a combination of livestock management software, ear tag readers and weigh scale readers as part of a pilot project to field test the best identification equipment for sheep.
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The Alberta Lamb Traceability Project hopes to identify two or three options that will work for most producers across the province, said Tony Stolz, an industry consultant working on the project.
While mandatory traceability of every lamb isn’t a Canadian requirement, sheep producers believe it won’t be long before it is.
“We’re anticipating this could be a requirement and we’ll be more prepared and we can make recommendations,” said Stolz.
Ronald Den Broeden isn’t waiting for radio frequency ID tags to become mandatory. The Barrhead, Alta., producer believes electronic identification will become a valuable management tool on his growing sheep farm.
Now he uses pen and pencil to copy bits of information about each ewe before entering it into the computer, which provides opportunities to make mistakes.
Den Broeden hopes the electronic identification system will help him manage medication information on his 750 ewes and sort animals into breeding groups. He plans to increase his flock to at least 1,000 ewes.
Den Broeden has already seen the benefits of electronic identification on a group of his cattle when Canadian Food Inspection Agency staff were looking for an animal associated with a BSE case. Using his electronic tagging system, Den Broeden used his computer to show the day the cattle were shipped to the slaughter plant.
“They were quite excited about it,” he said.
While Den Broeden knows it will take time to learn the new computer software program, he’s not afraid of the technology.
“You really have to find out about how it will work on your farm,” he said.
After watching the sheep automatically sorted by an electronic scale at Kaiser’s farm, Bob Anderson said he’s tempted to upgrade his sheep handling facilities.
Anderson doesn’t think his 200 sheep make a full line of electronic equipment worthwhile, but he is interested in a basic system of tag reader and software.
“Just the electronic identification alone will make it fun. We’ll want to use it every week,” said Anderson of Kathyrn, Alta.
Dan Sinclair of Bowden, Alta., is looking forward to getting more information back on each individual ewe
“If I get more information back on my lambs and more information back on my ewes, I’ll know how good a ewe she is,” said Sinclair, who now uses a notebook tucked into his shirt pocket to record lamb information.
“You quite often keep an animal around that you think is making you money. This should help you get that information,” he said.
Joe Lofthouse, sheep feedlot manager with Sunterra Farms in Acme, Alta., said Sunterra has its own system of reusable tags for lambs entering the 15,000 head feedlot. The feedlot is setting up its own identification system that will track each animal back to producers.
“If we don’t get enough information, it’s not a valuable tool,” said Lofthouse, who estimates it will take two to three years to get the software program refined.
Progress may be stalled because the feedlot is empty due to the high costs of lambs and feed grain.
Wesley Henning of Rochfort Bridge, Alta., said he wants the most basic system to learn. He wants a system that will quickly tell him the number of lambs from each ewe and a weaning weight.
Henning hopes more people adopting the technology will create a more viable sheep industry.
