Below are
examples of photos that are acceptable head shot / ear
tag photos.
Notice the photo of the
off-white sheep with the ear tag
KY6184-1780. It was necessary for the
person holding the lamb to also hold the lamb's ear in a position to
have the tag facing forward.
These two photos are a
very good example of how
to take a photo of two tags, both sides (other than holding the sheep's
head up a bit more is preferred so we see the mouth/nose/muzzle, both
eyes, both ears, and the tags. Notice the photo on the left,
the
ear with the green tag is being held so we see the back of the ear and
the ear with the white tag is being held so we see the front of the
ear. In the photo on the right, the ears are being
held
opposite, the ear with the green tag is being held so we see the front
of the ear and the ear with the white tag is being held so we see the
back of the ear. This presents both sides of the tags to us.
However, the sheep's head needs to be lifted up so we can see the
mouth/nose/muzzle, both eyes,
and both ears like the photos below.
The two photos above are
examples of the
Canadian
ear tags. The Canadian breeders do not have an assigned flock
number, their tags are just issued in numerical order as the producer
orders them. All Canadian "scrapie" tags will start with 124 (the
country code) 000 (range that may designate animal breed, not currently
used; and the rest of the number, for sheep, will fall into
124,000,310,000,000 - 124,000,319,999,999 or
124,000,500,000,000 - 124,000,549,999,999.
The photo on the left is
not showing the COMPLETE ID number. The member
had to retake and resubmit the photo and it was
necessary to turn the ear so the the complete ID number was showing. On
the two piece-tags, the complete number is
printed on the female piece of the tag (the button). Insert
the tag so the button is inside the ear which also aids in retainabilty
of the tag because it isn't as likely to get caught on fencing. Also,
take your photos looking directly at the sheep's face, not over the
sheep.
Sometimes, it will be
necessary to take two photos to submit for one
sheep. If the owner uses smaller tags or if they use the small
metal tags it may not be possible to have the sheep's face in the photo
and also
have the tag be readable. In this case, take the best photo
you can showing the face and the tag, then take a close up of the tag
with enough of the sheep's face in the photo so the registrar would
know it was the same sheep.
The tags in the photos
above are the tags currently (2021)
being
issued by the The United States Department of
Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
(APHIS), National Scrapie Eradication Program.
Below are
examples of photos that
are not acceptable head shot / ear
tag photos.
In the first photo, part
of the sheep's head is missing. The
shot was not a straight on head shot in the second photo but rather
from above the sheep.
The shot was not a
straight on head shot in the first photo. In the
second photo, half of the sheep's head is missing.
In this photo, none of
the sheep's face is showing, only the tag. If it
was a case of only the sheep ID number (0003) was on
the inside of the ear, the sheep's ear needed to be held with this
piece (the female piece) of the ear tag facing forward as mentioned in
one of the sets of photos above.
We receive many questions about the
height photos required for the Open Registration Application process.
Below is an example of what we are
looking for. In this photo, the entire sheep is visible. The sheep is
standing on level ground. The
vertical yardstick has the 24" height marked. The yardstick is pushed
down into the wool for an accurate height. If your sheep has
not been recently sheared, this is necessary. Also keep in
mind, if the sheep's hooves have not been recently trimmed, they can
add height to the sheep. Not necessary; but,
a small level is taped to the horizontal ruler which makes it easier to
know you're getting an accurate height photo by holding the yardstick
level. A bonus in this photo is you can also see the sheep's ear tag
number so we know it is the same sheep you're submitting the package
for. Another bonus - not required - is the height of the sheep
has been added to the photo.
For those purchasing their own ear tags from a tag company, here is a
handy chart showing the tags in the order of readability. Choosing
colors on the left end will make it easier to take a
photo
of the
writing on the tag.
NOTE: The head shot photos may be printed with up to four on a page on
copy paper. They do not need to be printed on photo paper. The example
below is four photos on one sheet of 8.5" x 11" copy paper. The name of
the sheep and ear tag number one can see on the
off-white sheep photos was added to the photos using Photoshop but is
not a requirement.
If you are submitting your photos via the
Electronic
Submission Process (ESP), please submit a single photo at a
time. Do not submit a photo with four photos on the page which would
make the images way to small for our purposes. Our program
automatically sets them up like this for
printing purposes.
Effective August 1,
2021, we
will no longer accept farm tags for registration purposes.
