Posted: 23 March 2023

Lambing Season in Full Swing

For many flock owners lambing season is in full swing. For a few, it is near the end, while for others it is just about to start.  For those flock owners using EID tag readers to record management information on their flocks, especially lambing information, it is critical to observe some very basic rules.

1. If you are prompted when you open your computer software that an update is available, please click to download the update. Updates are important. Sometimes the updates contain enhancements to the program, sometimes the update includes fixes to issues which users have reported.
2. Ideally the ewes should have been linked to their tupping groups before you download data from the reader. If not and if you need help, please contact TGM.  If ewes are linked to their tupping groups, then when the lambing event is downloaded from the reader, the lamb will inherit its father.
3. Try to get ewes and lambs linked in the tag reader as soon as possible after they are born. With the pressures of lambing, if events are not recorded at the time, they may not be recorded at all.
4. Download the data from reader to computer as often as possible, ideally not less than every other day. Data is stored on a reader on a standard memory card. If the data on the memory card gets corrupted, then everything on the memory card may be lost. If a reader gets accidentally left out in the rain or dropped in a bucket of water, while readers are water resistant, they’re not totally waterproof and total water saturation could lead to loss of recorded data.
5. When the data has successfully been downloaded from reader to computer, delete the task data from the reader when it has been saved on the software. This way you don’t run the risk of creating duplicate lambing events or duplicate entries for sheep.
6. When exiting from Select Sheepware for those users who are using this package, your software should indicate that it is performing a cloud backup and it should indicate if the cloud backup is successful or not.  Please contact TGM if the cloud backup is not successful
7. Retags can be entered on the Agrident readers. The menu option is menu -> tasks -> choose another task -> add/retag/move  If you choose new task entry, you can enter the last digits of the printed number (if it’s the EID tag that has fallen out or which won’t read). Then you can link to the new EID tag which is the animal is being tagged with. On sync of data to computer, Select Sheepware will locate the animal, record the retag information and then record the new lambing data. The animal’s history for previous years is preserved
8. When recording a birth, if you can estimate a lamb’s weight fairly accurately this will give you more accurate weight gain per day figures after you weigh the lambs for the first time.

** the most important point to take from this, is to download the data from reader to PC very regularly.
After lambing is finished, the next big event from a ewe performance perspective is to weigh the lambs at around either 56 days old, 90 days old or both.  Users working with Bluetooth weigh scales should check that the reader and scale are linking together properly before staring to weigh. If you switch the reader on, switch the BT scale on and set BT mode on the reader to master, the reader should find the scale, give a short beep and the BT icon on the reader should turn green. If this doesn’t happen, please contact TGM for assistance. Often non connection is due to an incorrect BT PIN number.

Lamb Management for Better Returns 

Read the ADHB guide to lamb management for better returns here.

Lambing 2023! We love to see and share your lambing pictures. If you would like to share yours please send them to info@tgmsoftware.com