Farmer Focus: More expense as nations split on cattle tag tech

On a Monday morning in early January, I was at the Moredun Institute just outside Edinburgh, where many of the great and good of the bovine sector – including the four chief veterinary officers – had gathered to talk about bovine electronic identification.

What was not up for debate was that soon all cattle tags in the UK would be electronic.

See also: Electronic cattle tags to be made mandatory in England

About the author

Ben Harman

A fourth-generation farmer with 247ha on the Chiltern Hills, Ben Harman owns the UK’s oldest herd of Charolais, as well as Salers and meat brand “Chagyu” (Charolais cross Wagyu). He is chairman of the British Cattle Breeders Club, vice-chairman of the National Beef Association and is a Checs board member. 

Read more articles by Ben Harman

Far more contentious though was which frequency should be used: low frequency (LF) or  ultra high frequency (UHF).

It’s a bit like the Littlewoods catalogue (LF) versus Amazon (UHF) – an appropriate analogy given the latter uses UHF tags as the backbone of its logistics.

It was no secret that ScotEID had a clear preference for UHF. Trials had been run, papers written and videos made showing the advantages of the newer technology.

Cattle moving through a yard or coming off a float were all read automatically, as the tags could be scanned quickly and accurately from a much greater distance.

Real time reporting was also possible, as was the option to store more information on the tag if required. Defra seemed unmoved.

A dullard from the back of the room (that would be me) expressed concern that we were sleepwalking into a situation where devolved nations would use different technologies in their tags, which would inevitably result in confusion, complication and potential traceability errors.

Sleepwalk we did, right out into the road and into the middle of a car crash.

And so it came to pass. Scotland confirmed it would introduce UHF tags by the end of 2026, and on 2 June, England confirmed the rollout of LF tags.

Sources tell me Defra sees this as the pragmatic choice. Since Brexit, we have seen a 21% drop in meat exports to 450m of the world’s richest consumers on our doorstep in the EU.

Our new sanitary and phytosanitary agreement will allow for that lost trade to be recovered. The thinking is a move to UHF tags may compromise the agreement.

In reality, it would not. The EU standard used for identification is the physical tag, not the EID.

So now, there will be more expense and complication as a separate system will have to be devised to smooth the vital movement of cattle between England and Scotland.