Introduction to registration

We are sure most members are aware of how registration works but for newer breeders and those that have not registered recently here is a quick recap:

• Castlemilk Moorits are included in a shared register called the Combined Flock Book (CFB) which is owned by RBST and is run on their behalf by Grassroots Systems Ltd.
• Only sheep who have two parent that are ‘fully registered’ are eligible to be put on the A register. (There is also a Supplementary Register for those purebred sheep that do not meet the A register requirement, please contact the society if you want more details on this)
• Sheep can be added as ‘birth notified’; which is free or as ‘fully registered’ which attracts a fee based on gender, age and whether you are an RBST member.
• Each lamb born is associated with a flock (identified by a 5 digit number and flock prefix), and, when added, is given the prefix of the flock of his dams owner but can be transferred free when sold to a new owner.
• There are no society requirements for ear tag data just the legal requirement of 2 tags including an EID one. Individual names are optional and there are no society naming requirement such as year letters.

There are a few things to remember when choosing WHEN to register your sheep:

• Lambs should be birth notified by their first birthday. You can still add breeding sheep as fully registered after this date but if you have castrates or males going for meat it really helps us understand numbers if they are birth notified so please consider birth notifying all your lambs before they are 1 year old.
• The fees for full registration DOUBLE once a ewe is past its second birthday or a ram is past his third birthday. So if you are intending to breed from a ewe do not wait until you need to register her lambs before fully registering the ewe as you could be paying double

Some tips on making registration easier

We are aware that when people are busy so keeping up with paperwork is often the last thing on the list to get done! So following suggestions at the 2023 Members’ Day we have confirmed with Grassroots that batch upload from a spreadsheet for lamb birth notifications is available. You just need to put your lamb details into a spreadsheet and email to  registry@grassroots.co.uk using these rules

• The first row needs to be column headings and every column must have as unique name
• The lambs should be one on each row
• The columns can be in any order but must include:
  • Date of birth (or month and year of birth)
  • Litter size (either single twin triplet,  or 1,2,3)
  • Sex (ram, ewe or F, M, C or male, female, castrate)
  • Full EID tag,  ie UK012345/12345  (this can be in two columns,  but it must be UK0 and your UK flock number,  and then the 5 digit individual number,  so tag 13 is 00013). You can put castrates with individual tag number TBA,  but NOT notified males and females which must have a unique ID.
  • Flock Prefix and Name (if you want to assign an individual name); this can be in two column,  eg  Bemborough and then the individual name
  • Sire ; registration number or full EID tag number
  • Dam : registration number or full EID tag number

But if you prefer to see your data on the screen when you are registering/notifying but need a refresher on how the Online Flock Book system works you can see a Youtube tutorial and ‘how to’ guide here:

https://home.grassroots.co.uk/farmer-access-pedeweb/online-registry/

So please help us get a true picture of the number of ewes breeding and lambs being born by birth notifying all your lambs every year.