New Federal Rules

Here's the funny thing about laws...most of the time we don't need them...we already have laws in place that tell us the same thing. I guess they are just trying to keep us non-government people confused and/or unwilling to read all the laws because there are just way too many of them!

Squeaky, where did you get your goats. I think I have an idea where it might be, considering the lineage and the fact that I bought a goat from a certain place who didn't have her tattoos done either. Some people just assign them because they have to for registration, but don't actually put them in the goat. If you shine a bright flashlight through the back of the ear (in a DARK place), look for green or black dots (not skin pigment dots) that make letters. If you really see nothing at all, you can re-tattoo them no problems. If there is something there, but illegible, there is something you can do with ADGA or AGS for re-tattooing so they mark it on their papers...and if you re-tattoo, try to put it in a different spot-if old tattoo is toward inside, put it further out or vice-versa. I wouldn't worry about it too much, unless you are planning to go to a show, or if you need it for ID purposes for other reasons (traveling, TB/Brucellosis testing, etc.)...or if you just want to have a permanent ID in case your goats get lost or stolen; it does happen, unfortunately.

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Nancy Boling
Frosted Mini Goats
Alpine and Nigerian Dwarf goats
2 Jersey heifers
1 guard llama
And whatever else shows up...
http://www.swfarm.net/

Okay, I am about to show some of my ignorance.....don't laugh okay. Scrapies.....I know there are ear tags for it but I haven't seen a test to prove your animals don't have it. It appears that my neighbor is able to tag is goats with scrappies tags without testing. What good is that doing?

Okay, I said don't laugh....never mind, you can laugh a little!

Carla

Check with Henwhisperer. I don't know if she comes on here much any more, but she was very active in fighting NAIS. She even wrote a book about it: First, They Came For the Cows.

Here's a link to her blog:

http://henwhisperer.blogspot.com/

Sharon is intelligent, informed, and dedicated. I've read her book, and we've discussed many of these issues at length. I highly recommend the book - and Sharon, too.

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Je ne suis pas Alice

http://homesteadingfamilies.proboards.com/

You can put scrapie tags on Lamanchas, you just have to ask for the small, metal 'clip-style' tags rather than the standard plastic ones. I have gopher-eared Lamanchas and have applied scrapie tags. You just have to be careful to apply the tag so it does not occlude the ear canal. I will try to remember to take some pictures when I do my wethers this spring.

Maybe I'll ask for more come spring, and get the little metal ones this time. I got the plastic ones last time.

Scrapies testing is done at slaughter, or on a suspicious animal generally. The tag just serves to make the animal traceable.

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Dona Barski

"Breed the best, eat the rest"

Caprice Acres

French and American Alpines. CAE, Johnes neg herd. Abscess free. LA, DHIR.

This explains our agricultural census we got in the mail yesterday. I'm pretty sure dh threw it in the trash.

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~Jill~

Riverbend Farm

WWW.Freewebs.com/jyllie63

I always have Goatmilk soap for sale

Good!!

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Alice
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"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus

Honestly, I took the vet to mean that the test is good for right NOW. Exactly your point. Something can be incubating and not show up (better to separate new stock from
your clean herd than trust that the test covers the future). Too many of these diseases are sneaky. CL for example can be inside the animal...unseen by you or the breeder. I certainly don't want you guys to think that he or I think it is not a good idea to test! It just isn't the total answer to keeping your herd as safe as possible. I admit to being someone who is freaked out by the possibility of my goats getting some awful, incurable disease. We do not do buck sharing/breeding because of my fears (doesn't make me very popular!) and we don't go to shows. I confess to asking folks to wear the plastic covers over their shoes, too (we provide them) when they visit. Yes, I am phobic.

Bio-security. It's OK.

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Alice
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"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus

That's what we do too when we get ours!

The first time we hauled a horse across country (about twenty years ago) we made sure and got the health certificate and coggins test etc. We stopped in each state (we went through six). Most of them had no around, no place to show the test or anything. There was one, I think either Wyoming or Montana that did have someone but they looked at us like we had three heads for bothering to have paperwork.

No one ever asked to look at anything and in most places there wasn't anyone. I have taken goats across state lines a few times, never with any kind of tag or certificate. Again, no one ever stopped us and asked anything. In fact our first goat we brought up from Texas. She wasn't registered, wasn't tagged, and had no health certificate. This was six years ago. We were total goat newbies and didn't even think about it. No one stopped us ever or asked us anything. Not even when we got her out and walked her for a little bit at a rest stop.

I imagine they will enforce these new rules with the same "dedication" they show for enforcing the others.

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Blog
Trailer

My vet told me about some people who smuggled a horse in from Texas without testing or getting a health certificate first. The horse brought some nastily contagious disease with it that required the state vet to retest it. The owners admitted that the horse, who was branded with a Texas brand, was brought in illegally. The owners were then required to pay to have every horse within a 10 mile radius tested. Even if you weren't stopped the documentation that you at least tried may be good should a problem arise. My vet told me this story as he was testing a goat who may or may not have allegedly hid in my truck when I went to pick up a different goat who I paid to have tested. Goats do that. Allegedly.

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"Don't worry what people think, they don't do it very often" ~ Unknown

We put it in the web of the tail.

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Deja Moo; The feeling I've heard this bull before.

I have heard of this being done but when I asked the person at the USDA extension office they said they were aware of the practice but did not recommend it. The auctions around here will only accept animals that have ear tags so I just stuck to putting them in ears even though it can sometimes be challenging to get enough cartilage for tags to be secure with really small gopher ears.

Do your goats ever bother the tags since it is an area they can reach??

Yes..they are like cats and kittens the way they can hide in a truck and get a free ride to another town.

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Teach only Love...for that is what You are

Wow. We never get one. Somehow, it must be lost in the mail on the way...

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Je ne suis pas Alice

http://homesteadingfamilies.proboards.com/

I taught my mailbox to digest all government census papers.........

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Emily Dixon
Ozark Jewels
Nubians & Lamanchas
www.ozarkjewels.net

"Remember, no man is a failure, who has friends" -Clarence

we had no problems with the tail tag.
It was OK for getting into the state fair and it was OK for shipping to the sale barn.
The placement of the tag did not bother the animals at all.

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Deja Moo; The feeling I've heard this bull before.