Shock cord collar trial starts
By Patrick Francis
We have begun a trial for new sheep collars with large management number tags attached using shock cord often called bungee cord rather than leather collars.
Leather hide for collars is increasingly difficult to source and expensive. Each leather collar is 55cm long and 3cm wide. It has to be drilled three times twice to tie the collar ends together with cable tie and once for the clipping on the management tag (we use 5cm x 4cm Allflex tag and button). The successful ties we found are the Italian SapiSelco Selfit 360mm x 7.5mm, anti UV, 65kg strength cables imported by Pacific Components Perth in packs of 100. Their only issue is when a collar needs to be removed to adjust its size the cable tie has to be cut off. The strength of these ties means cutting with pliers or tin snips. Our first SapiSelco cable ties were adjustable ones which were great for easy collar adjustment but they eventually started breaking at the adjustment setting so collars were falling off after 12 months.
Figure 1A: The breakthrough with leather collars was securing them with the SapiSelco UV resistant, high tensile strength cable ties. The 360mm cable tie is needed to easily slip the collar over the head. Shorter ties are more difficult to attach as the animal is moving. Not one of these ties has broken since we started using them in 2018.
Figure 1B: The SapiSelco cable tie secured. The excess is cut off leaving a 5cm tail.
We found the leather itself lasted for years and could be removed and re-used for replacement ewes when older ewes were culled. Management numbers are also cut off the old collars and re-used when the colour year returns.
The total cost of 3cm x 55cm leather collars home-made from Australian tanned cow leather side is approximately $3 each. Add to that the cable tie about $0.15 and 5 x 4 cm tag & button about $1, total $4.15 each.
Figure 2: The leather cow hide collar, SapiSelco cable tie, Allflex tag and button cost around $4.15 each. An Allflex applicator is needed to attach the tag.
The 55cm long 6 or 8mm shock cord collar cost is approximately $0.55 and $0.78 respectively. A 5 x 4 cm tag at approximately $0.79 each is threaded on, no button is required, making total cost around $1.50 each collar. Our trial is using Bunnings shock cord which may have long-life quality issues. The label states it is UV protected and resistant to a range of substances.
Figure 3: Shock cord collar and Allflex tag, total cost around $1.50. The cord ends are secured with two wire clips using a standard applicator.
The tag hole is drilled with 7mm or 9mm bit so the cord can be threaded through. Once threaded the shock cord ends are singed to melt the outside synthetic jacket to prevent fraying. The ends are locked together with two wire netting clips. These are filled or hammered flat to remove sharp points.
The shock cord collar is extremely easy to put on the sheep as it easily stretches over the ears and unlike the leather collar there is no cable tie to tighten.
The undetermined question with shock cord collars is how resistant are they to UV light, rain, and wool grease and will they be reuseable for the next flock of ewes?
Figure 4: The shock cord collars are simpler to fit than leather collars.
