Wool body's fears eID roll-out plans could mean double tagging

WoolProducers Australia CEO Jo Hall said the peak body was concerned about requirements set out that all sheep leaving a property would need an electronic tag either by January 1, 2027, or January 1, 2025, depending on each state's requirements.

"While, at this stage we are supportive of the tagging of lambs born on or after January 1, 2025, we see absolutely no benefit of double tagging older or cast-for-age sheep with an electronic tag if they already have a visual tag in their ear, particularly if they are going direct to slaughter," she said.

"WoolProducers strongly believes that the costs to the producer of having to put an electronic tag in does not translate to commensurate benefits in terms of biosecurity if these older sheep are traceable through the mob-based/visual system.

"In 2027 there will only be two years of sheep that have eIDs applied and if the double tagging of older sheep is introduced, producers will likely only be applying these tags as they go onto the truck which does nothing to enhance traceability and is an unnecessary cost.

"In terms of numbers of sheep involved, if you look at the recent MLA mutton slaughter projections, this could be around 10 million sheep per year."

Ms Hall said WoolProducers was advocating for a year-on-year phased in approach to tagging sheep with eIDs, starting with the 2025 lamb drop.

"It's common sense and what happened in Victoria when they rolled out mandatory eIDs," she said.

As part of the national rollout, officials from Agriculture Victoria have been taking part in the national Sheep and Goat Traceability Taskforce, while also hosting industry and government personnel to see their system in action.

So far NSW, South Australia and the ACT have all committed to ensuring all managed farmed sheep and goats are eID tagged before leaving a property by the start of 2027, while Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia have said all sheep and goats will be tagged by the start of 2025.

Tasmania is yet to finalise their implementation plan but a Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania spokeswoman said the government remains committed to implementing harmonised tagging requirement with the aim of the supply chain being ready to scan eID tags by the start of 2025.

NRE TAS is working with industry to facilitate eIDs and has formed a Sheep Regulatory Advisory Group and Goat Regulatory Advisory Group, with inaugural meetings of the groups expected to take place in coming weeks.

"The implementation of sheep and goat eID in Tasmania requires significant planning and industry consultation, and NRE Tas has recently considered the recommendations in the phase one report by the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association," the spokeswoman said.

NSW Farmers sheepmeat committee chair Chris Kemp said the cost of not only purchasing an eID tag but the time and labour costs to tag sheep that already have a visual tag under the current mob-based system is significant.

"NSW Farmers has been advocating for financial assistance for producers to transition to the government-mandated eID system and this includes support for sheep eID tags to cost no more than $1 a tag during the transition period," he said.

"It will be essential that governments provide financial assistance to support producers to be compliant with the mandated eID system for sheep and goats so that they are compliant with the NSW Government timeline.

"In the current sheep market, some producers will struggle financially to meet the timeline without assistance to reduce tag costs.

Mr Kemp said national harmonisation was a key condition of NSW Farmers policy, which provides in-principle support for this traceability reform.

"Failure to achieve national harmonisation will result in varying compliance conditions for producers, especially for cross-border movements, and this cannot be allowed to occur," he said.

Subsidised tags in South Australia have been offered on the understanding that the rebate is designed for breeding stock that will be retained to avoid doubling handling come 2027.

Livestock SA CEO Travis Tobin said in SA the government had chosen to handle the transition in two stages, and further discussion take place later this year or early next year in regards to the stage two transition to having all sheep tagged by the start of 2027.

"That's where potentially we will have some double tagging," he said.

"Ahead of our 2027 dates we've got four drops in that period and the tagging rebates have started this year...anything born in 2023, the breeding stock are entitled to the rebate so they shouldn't need to be double handled and anything that's born from 2025 will have to be tagged with eID.

"It's just that 2027 date where here in SA we've potentially got a couple of years of older sheep that are going to need some mop up, that's the bit we haven't worked through with our government yet."