What is a Premise number?
Did you know that the United States requires I.D. numbers for your goat?
Did you know that the United States requires that your goat has her own identification number?
How on earth is that even possible to track?
While pursuing and securing my first members of the Dakota Pygora herd, I found out that there were requirements. Requirements?
What do you mean by requirements?
In order to transport a goat from one state to another, you need to have a certificate of health stating this animal is in good health. That begins with the owner of the goat having a veterinarian.
That veterinarian is going to issue a health statement for the owner and that certificate is going to travel with the goat as it crosses the state line. (This goes for purchasing a goat or showing a goat at another goat show in another state)
What that certificate or veterinary inspection will require is the goat’s individual identification number to be on the certificate and on the goat.
This is where the USDA comes in
USDA ( United States Department of Agriculture)
This department has created a program that actually makes doing all this identification possible.
By using what is called a scrappies tag, each goat owner is to tag the goat with their very own ear tag. Each tag has its own number. To keep all this straight, the USDA came up with a way to track that scrappies tag number to your goat.
To keep all this straight, the USDA requires you to register your farm as a premise. Your farm will then be assigned a premise number- Location Identification Number (LID).
Your herd is assigned a flock ID number.
They will even assign your business name an account number.
It goes a little further, and they will also register your tattoo letters. We can talk about tattoo letters at another time.
Learning all this information ahead of time is crucial.
Where do you start? If you are in North Dakota, simply contact the state board of animal health.
That direct number is: 800-242-7535
If you go to the website: https://www.nd.gov/ndda/
State Board of Animal Health Department
The state you live in has there very own state board of animal health. You will also find your state’s department of agriculture a big help.
It is the responsibility of the goat owner to comply with the United States’ animal health requirements. Each state has an avenue in which to help you as an owner do this.
So, what is a scrappies tag? And why on earth would the US even make me want to do this?
Scrappies is a disease that is uncurable. By keeping good flock-keeping practices, a goat and sheep keeper will limit the risk their flock will be infected. When the disease presents itself, the animal is well into the illness and has to be destroyed. The scrappies eradication program has created a way to trace an infected animal to the exact farm it is now living on.
The hard news is this. If you have an animal in your flock/herd that is infected; your state health department will require your entire herd to be destroyed.
The USDA is very serious about eradicating this disease and has worked very diligently to help all goat and sheep owners I.D. there animals.
I want to go one step further into this whole I.D. system.
When I mentioned “Herd Name”, that may have raised a question with you. You are thinking “ How do I get a herd name? Or a business name?”
When going about obtaining a premises number for your location (premise); you will fill out a location (premises) registration form with your state’s Department of Agriculture.
On that form, you will be asked what the name of your business is. We named our business Dakota Carol’s Pygora Place.
The Department of Agriculture (North Dakota), assigned us the premises number and a business number. This number and name are then your launching pad to the Scrappie’s program as well as other associations you join that ask you for your premises number or your business name.
Plug into your future Breeders Association
This is where the Pygora Breeders Association comes in.
When joining this association, they will assign your herd a name.
They will assign your herd a registered tattoo.
You will want to reach out to your scrappies tag contact person and ask them how to register your tattoo numbers. They will help you get that done.
When you own a Pygora goat, it is only a Pygora goat if it is registered with the Pygora Breeders Association (PBA). This means that the I.D. number that was assigned to your goat is also used with the PBA.
The PBA has coordinated with the USDA- Scrappies program to allow the following method of I.D. for your Pygora goat should you choose to NOT ear tag your Pygora.
A micro-chip I.D. is allowed and the tattoo letters and numbers are assigned and not physically put on your Pygora goat.
The state of North Dakota has a hard time understanding this and my comment has been” If it doesn’t MOOOO, then the state just hasn’t taken the time to understand that animal’s registration rules/agreements with USDA”.
I was able to obtain all the I.D. numbers and be an official member of the PBA before we headed out to secure our herd.
It was so like learning the path to the guest bathroom in the pitch dark. I would go a little way and bump into something, then I would try to go a bit further. It was one of those things where you know you NEED to get to the guest bathroom and there just is no turning back!
The goats were technically ours, we simply had to go get them!
If it meant bumping into a few walls, then we simply would have a few black and blue marks when we came home with our herd!