The state government's $9.3 million package to help SA's sheep and farmed goat industry transition to a January 1, 2025 start date for mandatory eID has been welcomed by much of the sector.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to all our agricultural news
across the nation
or signup to continue reading
Primary Industries Minister Clare Scriven's promise of eID tags for less than $1 for the next two years has appeased some producers, but there are still some unconvinced, worried they will wear the extra tag costs long after rebates are gone.
The funding, which will also assist agents, saleyards, processors and feedlots buying equipment, is short of the WA government's commitment of $22.2m in its state budget for their eID transition. This is in addition to $3.4m announced earlier this year for tag rebates.
SA has about 10.8m sheep compared to WA's flock of 12.7m.
Ms Scriven, who signed up to a national eID roll out last year with the other state Ag Ministers for enhanced traceability, has stated the money - which will be put with the federal government contribution of about $3.5m - is for stage one focusing on newborn lambs and kids. Anything born after January 1 2025 must be tagged before it leaves the property.
She says more money could be available for stage 2, the next two-year period, when every sheep and farmed goat must be tagged by 2027 and will work with industry, including Livestock SA on this.
Opposition Primary Industries spokesperson Nicola Centofanti says it is a "reasonable start" but she says there is a level of concern that with inflationary pressures this figure could fall short.
"There are still many unanswered questions from the Malinauskas government, including what percentage of allocated funds will go towards producers to purchase tag reading equipment," she said.
Yorke Peninsula feedlotter Natasha Westbrook acknowledges eID is a cost to producers, but says it comes with "big biosecurity benefits".
"We are living in such a global market that the risk of exotic disease is increasing and as good as we think our borders are at keeping diseases out and being an island, one day it will happen and the ability to quickly trace animals will be hugely financially beneficial," she said.
"There is 70 per cent traceability in the mob-based system and the Victorians using eID are up at 97pc traceability."
The biggest benefit she has noticed from using eID tags for the past six years has been tracking the weight gains of 10,000 lambs Belmont Beef and Lamb feeds each year. About 6000 of these come from the family's Kangaroo Island property, with the remainder bought in from SA, Vic or NSW.
She has saved thousands of dollars by re-using the eID tags, putting them in when they enter the feedlot and taking them out about two months later before they go to the abattoir, but with the government's tag rebate she says they will tag all their lambs in the marking cradle.
Ms Westbrook is also excited about receiving carcase feedback on individual lambs, which will give them a clearer picture of the performance of different breeds and genetics.
TFI supply chain manager Mark Inglis says this is coming with RFID already in their Stawell, Vic, plant, implementation close at Tamworth, NSW, and a project at Lobethal too.
"We will be able to capture so much information which we can give back to producers such as animal health data, which we have been doing for a long time but only in mobs - it will also make individual carcase data available," he said.
Mr Inglis says a nationally-harmonised eID system can "only be a positive thing" for biosecurity and market access.
He says European Union and United Kingdom customers in particular have been looking for greater traceability of Australian lamb though the supply chain and regularly ask about whether Australia was progressing on implementation.
Some of the loudest opposition to eID implementation remains South East prime lamb producers.
Cameron Grundy, Lochaber, is disappointed government has been "hell bent" on forcing a system upon producers which will be expensive, time and resource consuming and not redress any perceived problem.
Instead, he believes it would be far better to refine the mob based system through more funding for database management and checking compliance.
Mr Grundy also believes there is one simple question which has not been answered.
"What tangible advantage will the eID system deliver that a properly run mob-based ID system won't?" he said.
"Victoria has the eID system and there is no premium paid to the grower."
BENEFITS FAR OUTWEIGH COST OF TAGS; SCHULZ
Upper South East sheep breeder Jason Schulz is urging SA producers to focus on the many benefits of eID, especially how the data collected can assist in decision making, rather than being fixated on the cost of a tag.
Four years ago, Mr Schulz and his wife Penny started tagging the first-cross ewe lambs which were being sold at the Naracoorte blue ribbon sale. This year they have tagged both ewe and wether lambs.
"We were selling in Naracoorte and Vic had brought in eID so we thought it may create demand for our lambs if they already had an eID tag and a Vic buyer didn't need to take them home and put a tag in them," he said.
In the past two years they have been selling their ewe lambs on-farm and have been able to provide the buyer with information such as whether each lamb was conceived as a multiple or single, its weaning weight, shearing weight and sale weight to calculate daily weight gain.
Mr Schulz says knowing the individual performance of animals within their flock using eID is helping them make better management decisions and even look after their paddocks better.
At ewe pregnancy scanning, the number of foetuses each ewe is carrying is recorded and then uploaded to the tags. The ewes carrying twins and triplets are run together until a few weeks prior to lambing when they are run through the Schulz's auto drafter and separated into two mobs.
In the next dry year, Mr Schulz says they will be able to easily identify and sell off the lesser-performing ewes.
He sees the tag rebate for the next two years as positive in encouraging more adoption ahead of 2025.
"There are a lot of diverse businesses out there with both cropping and sheep that don't think twice about putting a yield monitor on their harvester that is capturing information to make decisions not for this year, but the following year," he said.
"eID has the same capacity to capture information to make better financial decisions for the next year in a sheep flock."
During the transition to eID, he says the industry needs to put pressure on processors to begin providing individual carcase feedback. It is also imperative the sheep industry learns from the "trials and tribulations" of cattle eID, especially flaws in database management.
"Technology is only as good as the people that are using it," he said.
"If you don't have the right data in the system it can't be accurately accounted for and the traceability falls down."
