Portland Ram Lamb for sale

Furzley George

D.O.B. 5th March 2008
Sire – Furzley Dougal (P10388) Dam – Furzley Gaynor (P9273)
A very nice young ram. Well grown – ready to tup this Autumn. From prize winning lines. Sold registered and halter trained. Bluetongue vaccinated.
£100 to good home.

Tel: 01794 390032 Hampshire - can deliver.

The Rare Breeds Survival Trust is recognised by the European Community as the official registration authority for the Portland breed.

Newly registered animals are recorded in the Combined Flock Book for Boreray, Castlemilk Moorit, Manx Loughtan, Norfolk Horn, North Ronaldsay, Portland, Soay and Whitefaced Woodland sheep, which is published annually.

The Combined Flock Book is managed by Grassroots Systems Ltd, with a direct link to the Combined Flock Book site for flock book members.

Full details of the fees and procedures for registering Portlands can be obtained from the RBST website, which will also lead you to the ‘Flock Book’ site.

Only the breeder of an animal may apply for registration.
Grassroots will automatically send a certificate of pedigree to the owners of newly registered sheep. This should be kept in a safe place since it defines the animal’s pedigree status. Amongst other details, the certificate records both the individual number on the official ear tag which DEFRA requires to be applied to all sheep, and also the quite different Flock Registration Number which is assigned by Grassroots.
The regulations for ear tagging sheep can be found in the DEFRA publication ‘Guidance for keepers in England: rules for identifying sheep and goats’ dated 5 July 2005. These state that all sheep must carry a ‘UK (holding of birth) tag’ carrying the following information
• UK
• Flock or herd mark
• Individual identification number which must be unique to your flock and may be up to six digits.

Breeders of Portland sheep will receive from Grassroots the female half of a blue (Daltons) ear tag carrying the Flock Book Registration number. These tags are provided by PSBG to all breeders of Portlands whether or not they are members of the Group. They are the traditional tags which have been used to identify pedigree Portland sheep for a long time. It is possible, subject to strict provisos outlined below, to use the blue ear tags as the official identification tag required by DEFRA, however, it is more usual to use the blue tags in addition to the official tag. Some breeders find this convenient for management purposes. The fact that the letter P is added to the registration number has been a cause of concern, on the grounds that DEFRA do not allow a letter on the official ear tag. However, the PSPG have been categorically assured by DEFRA’s Livestock Identification Helpline that letters may be included on ear tags (for example if they are required by Breed Societies), but they simply do no count as part of the official identification number. Therefore the Flock Book Registration number can qualify as the individual identification number even if it includes the letter P.

This means that you can use the blue ear tag as the official identification number for your registered lambs provided that
• the associated male half is printed with UK and your six figure flock mark (the DEFRA Helpline have specifically confirmed that it is permissible for the information to be on separate halves of the tag);
• you register your lambs and receive the ear tag in time to apply it within the specified timescale (six or nine months after birth or before moving the sheep off your premises, whichever is the sooner).
Note that all your lambs must carry an official identification tag whether or not they are registered. This means that breeders who notify births in the first year and register in the second year cannot use the blue tags as the official identification tag, and all breeders must have a system in place for tagging lambs which are never to be registered (such as castrates).

If you do not use your blue tag as the official (DEFRA) registration number, PSBG hopes that you will buy an equivalent male half and apply this to your registered sheep in addition to the official ear tag because it can be a convenient way of recognising that an animal is a registered Portland. Breeders who do this should note that the individual identification number on the official DEFRA tag is included on the Certificate of Pedigree and remains the official identifier of a sheep. It is therefore particularly important that the Flock Book Registration number on the blue tag and the individual identification number on the official tag both correspond to the numbers on the pedigree certificate. In case of doubt, the sheep will be identified by the unique identification number on the DEFRA ear tag. If you choose not to use the blue tag and you sell a registered Portland without one, please pass the half tag on to the new owner who may wish to use it because (if properly used) it provides a ready confirmation that the sheep in question is officially registered.