Welsh sheep EID scheme ‘unworkable’
A Welsh MEP has insisted it is unacceptable that Welsh sheep producers are to be denied any level of tolerance if they fail to read electronic identification tags correctly.
During a visit to a sheep farm in Caernarfonshire, Jill Evans described sheep EID as unworkable.
She said farmers had made every effort to comply with the law but that it was impossible to tag and account for every single sheep in a flock.
“The electronic equipment available is not yet able to deliver a 100 per cent reliable result and I have seen how easy it is for tags to get lost. Yet, unless they comply 100 per cent, farmers will be penalised and is unacceptable,’’ she said.
At Gwern Farm, Saron, near Llanwnda, she heard how farmer Huw Jones and his family had worked diligently to make electronic identification technology work as one of 14 Welsh trial farms but had still experienced major problems.
“Using the technology and having to record and report each and every movement represents a great deal of extra work and costs, and we are finding a significant number of the tags are not being picked up by scanners,” said Mr Jones.
“That means us having to go through the sheep individually, read the tags manually and then write the numbers down. Doing that in horizontal rain and freezing cold weather means a great deal of extra work and a far higher risk of human error.
“It is extremely frustrating when you have bent over backwards to get the technology to work, but are still finding major problems which could lead to financial penalties.’’
Mr Jones’ frustration is echoed by the farming unions in Wales. FUW president, Emyr Jones, said he was disappointed at the Welsh Government decision to disallow tolerances for tag read-rates.
“The legal requirement for farmers is 100 per cent EID accuracy but everyone accepts that EID technology cannot deliver 100 per cent accuracy. Something desperately needs to be done to change a situation which I believe is completely immoral,’’ he said.
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