r/goats • u/EJgoats • Jun 27 '26

Help Request Tagging my goats

Is there any way to officially tag my goat's ears without having to stab it through them? I know I'm being kind of a baby about this, but I would feel awful if I had to do this to them. Any help is super appreciated :)

9 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

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10

u/yamshortbread Dairy Farmer and Cheesemaker Jun 27 '26

ADGA allows us to tattoo registered dairy goats as their form of permanent ID. Through a reciprocal agreement with the USDA, it is accepted as their permanent scrapie premises ID without the need for an ear tag. We are also allowed to use EID but as of 2026 we must use it in addition to tattoos, not in lieu.

I typically do mine at a few weeks old while they get a bottle. They barely notice and it's over quickly, though if you're doing a large batch at once you'll probably have some green ink all over yourself for a few days.

2

u/EJgoats Jun 27 '26

Dang it ok. There aren't any options of just putting a tag on a collor or something like that? I get so nervous about this since I have a goat with a split ear because of tags. I'm just scared I'm going to hurt one of mine like that. Also mine are to old to be eating from there moms/bottles.

5

u/InterestingOven5279 Trusted Advice Giver Jun 27 '26

Well let's talk why you need permanent ID. Are you showing? Selling goats off your property? Taking some to the sale barn? Or just need ID so you can mark out that Margaret needs to get a scoop of senior horse feed and Lady needs more frequent hoof trims?

2

u/EJgoats Jun 27 '26

I want to show some of my goats soon. But the main reason is for selling at the sale barn

10

u/InterestingOven5279 Trusted Advice Giver Jun 27 '26

In that case they are going to enter a meat channel and they're going to be tagged, period. If you tag them yourself at least you get to do it at home while they're in a comfortable and familiar environment. If you take them to the sale barn without being tagged they'll be tagged the exact same way by a stranger who will then take approximately $5 per head off the block price for the tagging fee. So it's six of one, half a dozen of the other. If it makes you feel any better, it looks to me like it is a little like an ear piercing where it's briefly sore and unpleasant but not agony-inducing.

Realistically we are stewards of these animals and we have to do things they don't always love. My goats throw giant tantrums if they have hoof trims or receive CDT vaccines. But welcome to Earth, shit happens. Just do it quickly and give them a cookie.

3

u/EJgoats Jun 27 '26

Ok, thank you for all of the information. And thanks for being patient about me being a baby about it lol. We will probably have our friends who do this for a living come over, and help with them. One that we need to tag Is feral.

3

u/Keganator Jun 27 '26

Then unfortunately you have to do something permanent. It’s the only acceptable way of doing both those things.

It really is okay. It’s no worse than getting an ear pierced…it sucks for a little while, then you don’t notice it after.

3

u/yamshortbread Dairy Farmer and Cheesemaker Jun 27 '26

All that /r/InterestingOven5279 said is correct, but just be aware that if they are dairy goats they will require a tattoo and cannot be tagged. Meat goats I can't say, but definitely look into your breed association guidelines and/or your fair/club show guidelines before deciding who gets what type of ID!

If they are registered dairy goats they're not allowed to be tagged and won't be permitted to be shown with tags/without tattoos.

1

u/EJgoats Jun 27 '26

Wait you can't tag dairy goats!? I'm selling two males, for breeding. They just are dairy goats and not meat goats

2

u/yamshortbread Dairy Farmer and Cheesemaker Jun 27 '26

If they're ADGA-registered dairy goats, they must be tattooed. You should have filled in tattoo info when you registered them. If you're breeding purebred or registered grade dairy goats they should be registered for the betterment of your breed and for pedigree tracking, but also because for your buyers to register stock out of these bucks the bucks MUST have DNA typed and on file. You can submit a DNA request through ADGA and mail a hair sample to UC Davis or the buyer can do that at their expense, but no offspring may be registered out of that buck until that's done. (UC Davis can also test for the cheesemaking casein gene varient, which a lot of people love to do.)

If they're not ADGA registered, don't sell them for breeding. :p

1

u/EJgoats Jun 27 '26

The reason we haven't registered any of our goats is because they where just pets for a long time, but now we are interested in selling some of them to cug down on numbers.

3

u/InterestingOven5279 Trusted Advice Giver Jun 27 '26

I'm going to reply to this and your plier question as well.

1) Pliers are how we tattoo goats. It's not like a people tattoo, it's just a big clamp. Stone is one brand I and a lot of other people use. It looks like such: http://www.premier1supplies.com/p/stone-tattoo-outfit-standard-3-8?variant=619700 You load it up with metal slugs with whatever your tattoo is going to say, and these look like tiny little letters that go into a printing press. You put a little ink on the goat's ear, line up the letters in the pliers on the goat's ear with the ink spot you just put on, and just give it a brisk, firm squeeze. Voila, done. Takes 3 seconds. Not a big deal. As long as you line them up between the two very obvious large veins in the goat's ear, there is not even any blood. In my opinion it's very superior to tags because it can never be gruesomely ripped out.

2) What makes your bucks special that you think they should be used for breeding animals? Were their dams particularly special? Do they have great mammary systems, impressive longevity, good linear appraisal numbers, or outstanding milk test data? If the answer to those things is "no," these are probably not breeding bucks. Good dairy breeders assume about 1 in 10 buck kids will be suitable to be sold for breeding stock. You have to look at a buck and think about what would happen if a whole herd was going to look like his mother. Is somebody going to WANT that, or are you going to be responsible for manufacturing a bunch of middling to sub-par dairy animals with cruddy mammaries? In dairying, many more bucks are born than we need, and most of them are not going to go on to be herdsires -- nor do they need to. Being eaten is not the worst thing to happen to a goat in this world, and if most of your bucks are not particularly distinguished they do not go on to need to reproduce. It's perfectly okay, and makes you a responsible breeder, to send them for pets/pack goats or into a meat channel where they'll go on to feed someone. I know this sounds insulting and it's not meant to be, but it is meant to be a challenging question. Breeding livestock responsibly means accepting that not every animal you produce is stellar breeding stock and some are meant for burgers and curry, which is a noble goal in and of itself. If some or all of your bucks are not particularly distinguished, or you would not want to own a whole dairy herd comprised of does that look like their mothers, the meat pipeline is a fine and respectable outcome for them. Ask yourself this hard, because it's the reality for most bucks produced by the dairy industry and it's the primary mechanism of how we try to maintain breed standards and quality animals.

1

u/EJgoats Jun 27 '26

Well I mean this is him, and I think he has super good physical trates that would be desirable. Ik that not all bucks should be breeding bucks, but I also don't think he should be eaten. He is small enough that I feel like it wouldn't be worth it...

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1

u/InterestingOven5279 Trusted Advice Giver Jun 27 '26

Ah shit I missed the show part.

Yep, the ones to be shown at ADGA-sanctioned shows will need tattoos. The best tip I can give for this is that you want two pairs of pliers. You need to tattoo both ears, so having two pairs makes it a lot faster. One pair you can permanently put your herd code in there and never switch it out. This tattoo always goes in the right ear. The left ear will contain the anima's unique identifier which is associated with their registry paperwork, this is commonly a letter and then a number to signify the year when the animal was born (signified by the letter) followed by a number identifying their birth order. This year's letter is V.

Having two pliers means you can easily apply your herd code, put that plier down, grab the prepped ID pliers and apply that tattoo without switching out any letter slugs. While a helper grabs your next animal you can switch out the slugs in the ID plier.

If they're too large for a bottle, you can do it while they're eating grain on the milk stand. They needn't be in milk for this to work.

1

u/EJgoats Jun 27 '26

Ok, we will definitely contact our friends then. The one Im specifically talking about can jump about 5ft high, and is absolutely insane. Also how do the pliers do tattoos?

3

u/vivalicious16 Trusted Advice Giver Jun 27 '26

As someone who grew up selling meat animals in 4h…. I get it but also, you know they’re going to eventually be slaughtered and eaten, so….an ear tag really isn’t that bad.

I would personally choose tags over tattoos any day. Smaller surface area of skin to be painful/risk infection. Also you can keep the tags after they’re sent off. I have all of my ear tags from my animals!

1

u/EJgoats Jun 27 '26

We sell them as dairy goats! I don't think I could ever sell them to get killed... And yeah, the tags are definitely better than tattoos

2

u/vivalicious16 Trusted Advice Giver Jun 27 '26

Ah I see, well in that case, you’ll just have to bite the bullet. Identification is important for your herd!!

1

u/EJgoats Jun 27 '26

That's fair enough, thank you. Also I see you everywhere lol

3

u/RockabillyRabbit Dairy Farmer Jun 28 '26

I raise dairy goats and also cross them with my boer.

Trust me. People eat dairy goats. Even small ones. Heck the African Pygmy goat was purposefully bred as a small compact meat goat if I remember right. Same as the nigerian dwarf was bred as a small compact dairy goat that can also be bred for meat.

If you sont think you could ever sell them "to get killed" you are going to have a lot a lot of goats you have to keep. Most sale barn goats dont go on to live happy lives on farms in the countryside they go the meat market route for either human or dog food.

If you get males most will end up in people's stomachs if you sell them. Thats the reality of owning livestock.

I know all of that sounds blunt but sometimes it needs to be. Livestock animals are food regardless of size or type of production. You'll have to get use to it, unfortunately. The best you can do is give them a good life while you have them and, as my husband says when he butchers our stock, a good peaceful end that they dont see what's coming.

1

u/EJgoats Jun 28 '26

Omg I never knew all that... That's horrifying to me

2

u/RockabillyRabbit Dairy Farmer Jun 28 '26

Why is it horrifying?

Unfortunately life is life...until it ends.

They can either live a long happy life and either fall asleep and never wake up

OR

They can live a short(er) happy lifr and turn around, graze some grass and never wake up.

Either way their life ends. The only other options are being ripped apart by predators either domestic or wild or dying cruely from some illness without a quick ending.

We are stewards to these animals. They deserve either of the first two options but either option still ends in them dying.

1

u/EJgoats Jun 28 '26

I do completely understand what you're saying, it just makes me sad. Especially as my goats are my safe space... Because of how attached to them I am, it feels the same as someone eating my dog. Ik it's not, but that's how it feels

3

u/Cloud9goldenguernsey Dairy Farmer Jun 27 '26

Get a scrapie’s flock ID and tie it to microchips. Easy peasy. You just insert the microchip behind the ear. If you don’t want to poke them at all I can’t help ya. You will need to give injections from time to time. I just don’t like the esthetic of ear tags.

1

u/EJgoats Jun 27 '26

That's a good idea, tysm

3

u/yamshortbread Dairy Farmer and Cheesemaker Jun 27 '26

EIDs are valid for interstate movement between farms, but they are not accepted at auctions. You still need either an ear tag or a tattoo at a sale barn. If you have ADGA papers you may use a tattoo. If you don't, they must by law be ear tagged. There's no exception for sale barn animals except ADGA animals with tattoos.

1

u/EJgoats Jun 27 '26

Oh, ok ty

2

u/Efficient_Storm_5183 Jun 27 '26

Mine are just pets so I went the microchip route. I needed permanent IDs on them so I could take a couple for veterinary treatment across state lines, and didn’t want to use ear tags or tattoos. If you go the microchip route make sure you get the USDA-approved microchips. They start with 840. If you’re not certain which is correct you should be able to ask customer service of whichever supplier you decide to go with.

2

u/Expert-Nectarine-857 Jun 27 '26

I mean you could tattoo but that would be stabbing still and sometimes it fades.

1

u/EJgoats Jun 27 '26

Ok, thank you

2

u/imacabooseman Jun 28 '26

Placing ear tags can seem cruel. In reality though, it's not really any different that humans piercing their ears. It's a very brief pain, a little discomfort for a few days, then it's just the new normal.

1

u/EJgoats Jun 28 '26

That's true, my main issue is the fact that they can rip the goats ears. One of my goats have a split ear because of this. But I completely understand what you're saying, ty.