Do different coloured ear tags tell you which farm a sheep belongs to?

No, they don't. In England, tag colours indicate specific regulatory purposes—yellow for electronic tags, black for when they match an internal bolus, and red for replacement tags with new numbers. Farmers use paint marks on the fleece instead to show ownership.

What do the numbers on a sheep ear tag actually mean?

The tag shows three parts: UK (country code), a flock mark (usually the holding where the sheep was born), and an individual number unique to that flock. For example, UK123456 000789 identifies the country, flock, and specific sheep.

How do farmers actually tell their sheep apart if ear tags don't show ownership?

Farmers use coloured paint marks applied in distinctive patterns—like a red splash on the shoulder or blue stripe down the back. Each farm has its own recognised combination, which is far easier to spot from a distance than reading plastic ear tags.

Sheep

Reading Sheep Ear Tags: What the Numbers and Colours Actually Mean

Every sheep carries a statutory tag with flock and individual identifiers, but the colours aren't a universal ownership code—they're part of a regulatory system that doesn't work like a postcode. Paint marks, smit patches, and local variations do the real work of telling one farmer's sheep from another on shared fells.

3 September 20268 min read