[mowhaugh]

Wondering when you tag your piglets, thinking about the pros and cons of different ages.  I am imagining it will be much easier to tag a wee piglet that a larger one, but then the longer they have them in the more likely they will pull them out and so on.  What do you all do?

[hughesy]

If they're meat pigs I do them in the trailer when they're loaded for the abattoir. No point doing them any sooner and removes the risk of torn out tags or infection and means the tags are clean and easy to read at the abattoir.

[mowhaugh]

If they're meat pigs I do them in the trailer when they're loaded for the abattoir. No point doing them any sooner and removes the risk of torn out tags or infection and means the tags are clean and easy to read at the abattoir.

Thanks for the reply! That's what I thought we'd do with any boys, what about any girls who look as if they might b good enough to keep to breed from?

[shygirl]

what breed are they? can you tattoo the breeders?
we usually tagged before they were sold at 8 weeks, and small enough to hold. although we lost a few tags no-one ripped their ears, unlike all the other species.

If they're meat pigs I do them in the trailer when they're loaded for the abattoir. No point doing them any sooner and removes the risk of torn out tags or infection and means the tags are clean and easy to read at the abattoir.

thats fine but remember some tags fail so be prepared to have a few spare tags and to update the movement docs if individually marked on the records. we had rubber round Z tags that were a pest for bending and failing.
if you have a sheep / calf crush then that helps with the bigger ones.

[Sbom]

We also do ours in the trailer when they leave 

[mowhaugh]

what breed are they? can you tattoo the breeders?

Large Blacks, so not ideal!  I am getting a bit previous, they are not actually born yet, I just want to be properly prepared and not flapping about at the last minute.

[Berkshire Boy]

As they are large blacks you will have to notch any breeding stock. You can double tag but they can't be shown if not notched.

[shygirl]

is it a registered herd?

[mowhaugh]

Yes, they are registered.  And they will be notched.

[oaklandspigs]

Notching relates to purebred registered stock, and yes if you want to register, you'll need to do that.

Tagging (other than as an alternative to notching) is NOT required for any pig that you are going to keep. 

So if it's born on your holding and stays with you, it needs no legal identification unless or until it moves to another holding or to slaughter.

[mowhaugh]

I guess I am thinking about any pigs which we may sell for breeding.  Just trying to get an idea about if we are going to tag, when would be the best.