Free Sheep EID Reader Workshop

Quality Meat Scotland (QMS), in conjunction with Scoteid, is offering sheep producers the opportunity to attend a free workshop on Wednesday 9 October at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), Craibstone Estate, Aberdeen.

The aim of the workshop is to enable producers to become familiar with commercially available EID (electronic identification) readers and the benefits this type of technology can bring to their business.

The workshop will lead sheep producers through the feedback from different types of readers. This will range from a very basic hand held stick reader that produces a list of ear tag numbers, through to more complex systems which can be used when combined with weighing sheep or performing routine worming.

Workshop participants will be able to determine the pros and cons of the mainstream types currently available and will be given the chance to operate the different types of reader with animals rather than static ear tags. The workshops will also cover compatibility with various types of software.

Following the sheep producers workshop in the morning, the workshop will be re-run to the next generation of sheep producers - a group of students from SRUC.

“Through EID, sheep farmers who are interested in monitoring how individual animals within their flock are performing can do so in a relatively easy way, rather than viewing the whole flock on a batch basis,” said Kathy Peebles, QMS Livestock Development Manager.

“Poorer performers can then be quickly identified and action can be taken to avoid impacting the bottom line of the business.”

The workshop starts at 10.30am and finishes at 12.30pm. To book a place, please contact Kirsty at QMS on 0131 472 4040 or email info@qmscotland.co.uk.

Caption: Attendees using a reader at last year’s QMS EID workshop.