Sheep EID rule change ‘could cost industry £1.8m’

All lambs under 12 months old in England will have to be electronically tagged from 2015 under new government rules.
The announcement follows the results of a government consultation in early autumn to pave the way for the introduction of electronic reporting for sheep movements.
The NFU said the decision to outlaw non-electronic batch tags for slaughter lambs was “disappointing” and warned it could cost primary producers £1.8m.
“This announcement comes at a time when livestock businesses have seen incomes drop by nearly 50% during the past year,” said NFU livestock board chairman and Leicestershire sheep farmer Charles Sercombe.
“We have been clear with DEFRA that the last thing livestock producers now need is to see a rise in tagging costs.
“Unfortunately the calls from the NFU and other farming organisations appear to have fallen on deaf ears and I have invited the minister [George Eustice] to visit my farm to discuss the issue in more depth.”
The NFU said DEFRA had listened to some of its concerns and delayed implementation of the rules to 2015 to allow farmers to use up the existing stock of manual tags.
But the union added that the vast majority of sheep farmers would just view this decision as a “further burden on the industry”.
“Now DEFRA has made the decision to remove the non-electronic tag entirely, ministers must grant a fair tolerance to prevent farmers from cross-compliance fines if the technology fails,” added Mr Sercombe.
“This is already happening in other EU countries and there is no reason why this should not be implemented in the UK, too. DEFRA must also focus on ensuring a smooth implementation of the new sheep database next spring.”
The National Sheep Association (NSA) said it was “bitterly disappointed” by the decision, adding it would add unnecessary costs to producers.
The association accused DEFRA of taking little notice of the sheep industry’s view and forging ahead with its decision to implement full EID in England, even in lambs going directly to slaughter that pose no traceability or disease risk.
NSA chief executive Phil Stocker said: “There is no evidence of disease risk at all where lambs are going direct from holdings at birth to slaughter.
“DEFRA has not listened to us on this, so why bother to consult us when they have decided not to act on industry views? They have not given any rationale as to why they feel they cannot apply a derogation.”
Mr Stocker warned that the decision could leave sheep farmers at greater risk of falling foul of cross-compliance penalties.
“It’s within DEFRA’s powers to apply a reasonable level of tolerance to the technology. If we can correct the tolerance issue so that financial penalties are far less, that would be a big step forward.”
Northern Ireland and Scotland have already implemented a full sheep EID system. A full sheep EID database could be in place in England by spring 2014, but a system for Wales is further behind.
“We are in a ridiculous situation where there will be significant changes in England in 2014 with the introduction of the electronic database, more upheaval in 2015 with the removal of visual tags, and presumably more changes again further down the line when Wales catches up,” said Mr Stocker.
“This is not only an issue for cross-border trade, but also makes life difficult in terms of farmers in neighbouring areas having to understand different sets of rules.”
A DEFRA spokesman said: “Electronic tagging will uphold Britain’s high standards of livestock traceability and improve our ability to manage animal disease outbreaks. It will also allow us to gather evidence to argue against EU fines for minor record keeping errors.”