Sheepfarming on the Carneddau

Each grazing association employs a Setiwr. The word comes from the old English word Escheator, who in medieval times was a royal official whose job it was to reclaim assets for the crown after a death when there were no legal descendants or heirs. The Setiwr of the grazing association has two responsibilities, the first of which is to make sure that stray sheep (defaid diarth) that are picked up in any of the gatherings are reclaimed by their owners in neighbouring farms. The second responsibility is to auction off any unclaimed or orphan lambs found at the time of the gatherings in July and September. Usually these lambs have no earmark to identify which farm they would belong to. The picture shows the lambs gathered up in June 2022 and made available for auction in the Llanllechid sheepfold Parc Set, which (unusually) is in the middle of the village.

Often in the past hot pitch was used on a marking iron to print two or three of the owner's initials on the sheep after they had been sheared. The pitch could withstand the weather and would be visible on the fleece all year round. However, woollen mill owners would complain about the mark as it was difficult to remove when preparing the fleece for spinning. This had a detrimental effect on the price of wool and so other methods, such as aerosol sprays, were developed to mark the sheep.

In the sheepfolds on the Carneddau sheep are usually identified by their earmarks. Each farm has its own unique mark which is cut when the lamb is young; the cuts are made in the cartilage of the ear so that it is relatively painless. A large number of different cuts are used in these earmarks and there is a wealth of terms to describe them. The rule is that earmark records show the marks as they appear when looking at the back of the ear, ie looking forward from the back of the sheep. A mark is not owned by any individual but rather by a farm. So there is a very clear relationship between the farm, its grazing rights, its earmarks and its flock's habitat (a description of cynefin sheepfolds can be found here). When a farm is sold, the sale usually includes the flock.

Earmarks are not to be confused with the yellow identification tags required by law. 

There is a special vocabulary to describe the types of marks made. In most cases, of course, just the welsh would be used. The two pictures are taken from a 2015 publication by The North Wales Police of all the earmarks in the area which was produced to help identify sheep that had been stolen. Many farmers have old handwritten records of the earmarks used and records exist of earmark registers going back to 1825.

Earmarks are not unique to Wales and can be found in other parts of the UK. In Cumbria, for example,  they are known as lugmarks. Earmarks are commonly found abroad as well, for example in Iceland and Australia and New Zealand, although in all three countries it is no longer a legal requirement to make an earmark.