LambTracker 69 Sheep 0

Today we put EID tags into all the breeding and potential breeding ewes. We tagged 69 ewes in 1.5 hours using LambTracker ConvertToEID module. We also took notes on several sheep and looked up and decided not to put tags into sheep scheduled for butcher soon. Everything in the lambTracker program worked properly. The user interface seemed to work better with the Alert button close to the tag input button making it easy to see a sheep with an alert of some type.

The note section was conceived and added between last night and today and it also worked properly. I have a few ideas for refinements to take a note but the function was there, I just need to make it a bit simpler to use.

Our state veterinarian came up to assist and observe.

I was thrilled that everything worked properly.

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Well I was hoping I could keep comments open on this to answer any questions but the spam has become an overwhelming flood. Over 50 in the last 2 days.

Sorry but no more comments allowed at all.

ConvertToEID works!

First test against live sheep. We had no program crashes. The database was properly updated. Old farm tags that we had to cut out of sheep ears got marked as removed. New EID tags got added to the database with a tag_date_on of today and attached to the correct sheep. Sheep that had an alert in their record because they are scheduled to be butchered soon came up with an alert and did not get an EID tag.

All of our breeding rams are now identified with Shearwell EID SET tags. One ram jumped out of the chute and did not get his tag replaced. However due to his behavior he may become a dinner sheep and not need an EID tag.

We had a few user interface issues. Some of the buttons to add tags, remove tags and update the database were too close to each other. I have moved them around as suggested and we are ready to do the main conversion of the ewe flock now.

Conversion Ready to Begin & Tag Update

The ConvertToEID module is now ready for testing against live sheep. During the transition we need to look up a sheep based on existing federal or farm tag data. After an evaluation of the available ear we will decide whether to add a third tag, the new EID tag, or remove the farm tag and replace it with an EID tag. The ConvertToEID module is a task in the program that provides a screen to look up a sheep, allows you to add and remove federal and farm tags and scan and add EID tags. We are ready to test it by installing EID tags into all of our breeding rams, hopefully this week.

In other news the Shearwell SET tags are now officially approved as US scrapie ID as I reported earlier. That’s the good news. The bad news is that with the government shutdown we cannot yet get into the system to order any tags. However, as soon as that is resolved I will be ordering pairs of SET tags for our sheep and starting with the 2014 lambing all newborn lambs will get their EID at birth.