Why Biosecurity

Biosecurity is crucial in the animal industry for preventing infectious diseases from entering farms, spreading within operations, and impacting animal/human health, ensuring food safety, protecting economic stability (reducing losses from sick animals), maintaining consumer trust, and lowering reliance on antibiotics. It involves controlling access, sanitizing equipment, isolating new animals, using protective gear, and managing waste to create a barrier against pathogens like viruses, bacteria, and parasites. 

Before The Show

• Evaluate your livestock project(s) health. Only take healthy livestock to the show to minimize the risk of a disease outbreak. If your livestock is not eating normally, coughing, having trouble breathing, or showing any disease symptoms, it is in the best interest of your livestock and others to reconsider exposing the livestock elsewhere.
• A good rule of thumb would be to document all of your livestock's treatments and vaccinations. Be sure to work with your veterinarian to determine if any vaccinations are necessary.
• Only take clean and properly disinfected equipment to the show. Ensure you have adequate supplies needed for the duration of the show, so you do not have to borrow from others.
• Be aware of how diseases are transmitted. This includes, but is not limited to, nose-to-nose contact, aerosol transmission, or fecal transmission.

• While at the show, continue to monitor your livestock for any signs of illness. If you suspect your livestock may be sick, inform the veterinarian on site as soon as possible.
• Wash your hands before coming into contact with livestock or equipment.

• Once you return home from any show, try to isolate the livestock exposed as much as possible. During the isolation process, you have the chance to monitor your animal to see if it shows any signs of disease.
• Be sure to wear different shoes and clothing than those that you wore at the show.
• Cleaning and disinfecting play a vital role in reducing the risk of your livestock getting sick. Before loading your trailer with livestock again, be sure to remove all bedding/manure and equipment from the trailer and clean thoroughly. This includes feeders, waters, buckets, panels, brushes, show boxes, equipment, and more.
• When disinfecting your trailer, barns, and equipment, be sure to properly apply the disinfectant according to its instructions. After this process, allow the equipment to fully dry using sunlight or a heat source to kill the remaining pathogens.
• Reduce exposure to other people. If visitors need to attend your farm, supply clean boots or plastic boot covers. When your visitors are leaving, ask them to remove their plastic boot covers and place in a garbage bag. Then make sure to dispose of them in a designated location or away from clean supplies. If you supply visitors with clean boots, make sure to disinfect those boots after each visit.
• Everyone should clean their hands with sanitizer or wipes before entering the vehicle.

In addition to the biosecurity information, we want to share a few extra reminders as we move into the spring. Many of these may seem like common sense, but a quick refresher helps keep everyone accountable.  

• Separate feed buckets, brushes, and equipment labeled for each animal; do not share unless sanitized
• Limit outside animals from entering the facility
• Clean and disinfect common areas frequently
• Lock medications, supplements, and syringes. 
• Avoid using syringes on multiple animals.
• As cold weather approaches, have a plan for freezing or busted pipes; ensure students know who to call and that teachers know who is responsible for cutting off the water; prepare students to bring in water if needed.
• Have a plan for power outages that affect heat lamps, fans, or automatic waterers.
• Review protocols for after-hours/holiday emergencies and who can access the barn.
• Remember animals/students are still your responsibility on holidays so work now to identify a schedule to share these responsibilities over the holidays.

Swine tag orders for the 2026 Texas Spring Major Stock Shows opens on September 1, 2025. Tag orders placed between September 1 – September 30, 2025 will be $25.00 per tag. Tags ordered October 1 - November 7, 2025 will be $30.00. Please note that tags can only be ordered by the county validation chair.

New: The maximum amount that a county can charge for a tag over the original cost is $5.00.

Tags ordered in September will begin shipping during the second week of October 2025. These tags will be shipped from the Texas FFA office, and the shipment will also contain the newly revised hair envelope which includes the ear notch drawing.  All other documents can be found and downloaded at https://www.texasffa.org/swine-validation. Tags ordered after October 1, 2025 will be shipped from the Texas FFA office by November 15, 2025.

Validation of 2026 barrows and gilts showing at the 2026 Texas Spring Major Stock Shows must occur within the presence of the swine validation committee between November 1 - November 30, 2025.  Under no circumstances should tags be handed out.

All materials and any unpaid orders must be postmarked by December 8, 2025 to the Austin office.  To ensure timely receipt and posting of your payment, please DO NOT include your payment in your validation materials box.

VALIDATION SCHEDULING DEADLINE:  October 15th - make sure to email your forms to tammy@texasffa.org.  If you haven't done so already, make sure to get your form emailed to Tammy ASAP!

***IMPORTANT*** County validation chairs are highly encouraged to print the order invoice immediately after placing an order and submit for payment.  This will prevent the county account from being blocked for the next ordering cycle.

Please see the chart below in the FAQ section regarding validation/tagging requirements for the 2026 Texas Spring Major Stock Shows. 

The 2026 Texas Spring Major Stock Shows Validation Checklist and all remaining  documents have been updated.  You can find them at the bottom of this page. Please make sure you are using the current version of the forms, and that all materials are complete and included when mailing in your validation materials.

Scroll down to the bottom of this page to review the Swine Validation Workshop presentation and watch videos covering the validation process and validation paperwork presented at the 2025 ATAT Conference!***

2026 Texas Spring Major Livestock Show tag orders begin September 1, 2025. To submit your orders, please visit http://validate.texasffa.org/ .

County Validation Chairs Please Note:  Your county swine validation account balance must be in good standing, or you will not be able to order 2026 Texas Spring Major Livestock Show tags.  Please make sure all balances for previous orders are paid prior to the September 1, 2025 opening date.

County validation chairs will need their county password to login to the system to place orders, print forms, submit tag/ear notch corrections and complete the student tag information. If you do not know your county's login password, please contact Tammy Glascock (tammy@texasffa.org)).


The swine validation system will close December 8, 2025 for all data input. After that date, all changes to the online tag assignment system will be done through the State Swine Validation Coordinator (tammy@texasffa.org).  All forms contain instructions regarding this change.

The gilt registration paper upload system http://validate.texasffa.org/gilt will close on January 6, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. All registered gilt information and paper upload must be completed by the deadline. NO EXCEPTIONS!  Please note that state validation tag numbers are required in order to input required information into the data system for the registered/purebred gilts.

2026 Texas Spring Major Livestock Show Validation Process Information

Only the Swine Validation Chairman from each county may order tags.

COST:     Septemebr 1 - September 30, 2025                                                 $25.00 each
                  October 1 - November 7, 2025                                                          $30.00 each
               
                    ***All orders will ship 2-3 day priority mail.***

New: The maximum amount that a county can charge for a tag over the original cost is $5.00.

ORDERS/SHIPPING: Address on order form should be SHIPPING address, please NO PO BOX addresses - we are not able to verify delivery to PO Boxes other than received at the post office. Orders received in September will ship the second week of October. Orders received in October/November will ship by the end of the second week of November- please keep this in mind when scheduling your validation dates!

VALIDATION: All official validation and tagging should occur on or before 11:59 p.m. November 30, 2025 in the presence of the County Swine Validation Committee.  Under no circumstances should tags be handed out for offsite tagging.