Identification of individual animals
Meat & Livestock Australia September 22, 2021
Sheep Genetics uses a 16-digit identification number to identify individual animals within the evaluation. An animal will retain their unique 16-digit number throughout their entire life (i.e. even when sold) as this identification number is used by the genetic evaluation to track animals and their progeny when calculating ASBVs and indexes.
The Sheep Genetics 16-digit ID is made up of the animal’s breed and flock code, year of birth, and their tag number. The tag number is defined by you and what you use to identify animals within your production system – choose something that will allow you to keep track of your animals (for example, this may be a visual tag number). Generally, the first two digits of the tag number will correspond to the year of birth.
If you are not a registered stud with a breed association, contact SG to have a code allocated. If you have a registered flock code with a breed association, this will form the code in your Sheep Genetics flock code. For example, if you have White Suffolk sheep (breed code 23) and your association gave you the code 999, your Sheep Genetics breed and flock code would be 230999. If you are not registered with a breed association, Sheep Genetics will allocate you an unregistered code.
To get your flock code set up with Sheep Genetics, please contact Sheep Genetics and complete a subscription form. Subscription forms can be found on the Sheep Genetics website under the ‘Getting Started’ tab. A link will be provided upon completion of this module.