Debate heats up over planned mandatory EID scheme for Australian sheep and goats

With a nationwide shift to mandatory electronic identification of sheep just two years away, debate is raging over a proposal to ban the sale of old-fashioned livestock tags. The Australian Meat Industry Council is behind the contentious proposal, which would see all National Livestock Identification System-approved visual tags “withdrawn from sale” when the mandate takes effect in January 2025. AMIC chief executive Patrick Hutchinson said the move would minimise double tagging and “put Australia in the best position possible to respond to an animal disease outbreak”. But Eneabba sheep producer Chris Patmore, who is chair of the Pastoralists and Graziers Association of WA’s beef and sheep producers committee, has slammed the proposal. In a statement outlining AMIC’s position, Mr Hutchinson said consistent traceability requirements across State borders would “reduce uncertainty and disruption to commercial activity”. “A harmonised transition to EID will allow Australia to present a united and straightforward message of changes to trading partners,” he said. “If we have an outcome where processors are receiving stock from multiple states, which are moving to sheep and managed goat EID at different rates, the process of verifying whether each animal meets the regulatory requirements will become significantly harder.” Mr Patmore told Countryman EID tags were already widely available and the marketing benefits had yet to be proved. “If the processors are honest about the claimed benefits to marketing, they are able to pay a premium now and acquire sheep which only have EIDs,” he said. “To my knowledge no processor in Australia is doing this, which brings into question the marketing benefits.” Mr Patmore said AMIC’s proposal was a “moot point” anyway, questioning why farmers would buy old tags if they could no longer market sheep with them. “Of course we still need access to visual tags for flock management purposes, but these wouldn’t need to be NLIS-approved,” he said. Mr Hutchinson said removing NLIS-approved visual tags from the market would ensure sheep producers “don’t inadvertently use tags that will soon be redundant”, and “get as many EIDs in circulation as quickly as possible”. “This is just like industry removing old NVDs (national vendor declarations) from circulation,” he said. “AMIC will continue to advocate for national harmonisation of EID requirements via the Sheep and Goat Traceability Task Force and will also engage State regulators to push our position. “We cannot end up with a multi-speed transition to EID, beyond what we already have with Victoria leading the shift across. Industry and regulators must not accept an outcome where we have further variation across state borders in how we move to EID tagging.” EID is already mandatory for all Australian cattle. Victoria is the only State to have introduced mandatory EID for sheep, with all other States and Territories still using visual tag mob-based systems. Mr Hutchinson said national harmonisation was vital to minimise impacts and costs on businesses and increase the confidence of Australia’s trading partners. “Harmonisation will minimise the complexity for businesses operating and transacting across State borders and enable clear and consistent communication of changes to stakeholders along the supply chain,” he said. “If requirements to sell sheep and goats across State borders differ, communicating changes to a wide producer base making such transactions will be extremely difficult. “Friction at state borders will stymie the free movement of stock and may distort markets.” The move to mandatory EID for sheep and goats was agreed last July at a meeting between Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt and State and Territory counterparts. WAFarmers cautiously backed the decision, with president John Hassell saying at the time that it would improve traceability significantly, but calling for financial assistance to establish the necessary infrastructure. The PGA has long resisted mandatory EID, with Mr Patmore saying sheep breeders would be expected to pay the bulk of the cost of transitioning. “WA has a really good traceability system already with the pink transaction tags, and I believe the vast majority of producers are not in favour of mandatory EIDs,” he said. “It looks like we’re going to have to wear it, but without having the support of producers, the transition is going to be a long and painful process. “This is another cost which will swing the gross margins towards alternative land uses such as cropping.” Full details of how the cost — estimated at $49m for WA alone — will be split between industry and governments are yet to be determined. The WA Government last month committed $3.4 million to kickstart the rollout, with the funding to go towards new scanning infrastructure at saleyards and other “key livestock congregation points”, as well as an electronic tag subsidy for producers. NSW is the only other State to have committed funding so far, pledging $3.5m in August to “drive forward plans” for the mandatory system, while the Federal Government pledged $20.1m in its recent Budget. Under the scheme, all lambs and managed goats born after January 2025 will have to be fitted with electronic tags. All animals not already tagged by that time, no matter what age, will have to be fitted with EID when next transferred from the farm. According to recent forecasts by Meat and Livestock Australia, the national sheep flock was expected to grow by 4.9 per cent to 74.4 million head in 2022. WA’s sheep flock was about 12.7 million head in 2021 according to figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The size of Australia’s feral goat population is unknown. In WA, feral goats are mainly concentrated in the southern rangelands, with the State’s goatmeat industry primarily based on harvesting semi-managed or wild animals to supply domestic and international markets.