PROCESSORS are calling for a national mandate on the use of electronic identification for sheep and goats, following the Victorian Government's move to make electronic tags compulsory.
From mid next year, all Victorian saleyards and abattoirs will be required to read electronic tags of sheep and goats born in 2017, with the information linked to National Livestock Identification System (NLIS).
Victorian Agricultural Minister Jaala Pulford said embracing identification technology would help safeguard access to lucrative export markets and provide opportunities to continue upward productivity gains.
In a statement released this morning, Federal Agricultural Minister Barnaby Joyce hit back calling Ms Pulford’s announcement a “new sheep tag tax”.
“Imposing a sheep tag tax on farmers is an unnecessary cost burden given the strength of the existing NLIS system which all states enforce and which continues to provide effective traceability,” the statement said.
“Even with a one-year subsidy from the Victorian Government, this will bring an excessive form of regulation to Victorian farmers, giving a distinct advantage in operating costs to other states in the sheep industry.
“We have a strong national NLIS system and Victoria has not been able to gain the support of other states to introduce mandatory electronic ID for individual sheep.”
The Victorian Government has advised electronic tagging exemptions would apply to sheep and goats born after 1 January 2017, on a property outside of Victoria and subsequently transported to Victoria.
Sheepmeat Council of Australia vice president Alexander MacLachlan called the “surprise move” by the Victorian Government “heavy handed”.
“We are disappointed they’ve decided to go out on their own and not try and stick with a national framework to find a national solution to the monitoring problems,” Mr McLachlan said.
“While the systems we have are not working perfectly, they do work and we have a great reputation with our national trading partners.”
Mr McLachlan said the cross border trade logistics would raise the debate as to whether there should be a national mandate for the use of eID, with the industry urgently convening to consider the practical implications of this decision nationally.
“It will certainly raise the question and each state will have to make their own deliberations as to whether they follow on, although the impetus at the moment is fairly little,” he said.
While there may be marketing advantages for Victoria as a result of strengthened traceability, Mr McLachlan said the cost of electronic tags for large graziers would be too prohibitive to support national enforcement.
“Whether Victoria will be seen as a market leader or a safer seller of stock is yet to be worked out,” he said.
“We think making eID compulsory is the wrong approach at the moment but we are happy to have a national conversation.
“There will be a cost to producers in the station country, which Victoria doesn’t have a lot of, which will be a huge burden that really will achieve nothing when it comes to the monitoring of livestock.”
The council’s views were supported by Goat Industry Council of Australia and Woolproducers Australia (WPA).
“Victoria having one system while neighbouring states operate under another is neither practical nor advantageous in any regard and sends a poor message to our trading partners,” WPA president Richard Halliday said.
“While the Victorian government has indicated it will initially subsidise the cost of implementing the system, ultimately the cost of infrastructure upgrades and the cost of tags in the long term will be passed to producers.”
However, several processors backed the mandatory eID move, including JBS head livestock manager Steve Chapman, who said it was a long time coming.
“It’s a good thing, if not before time,” Mr Chapman said.
“We can drill down deeper to the individual carcase performance and see payments on lean meat yield – it’ll be fantastic.
eID tags have been mandatory in the cattle industry for over a decade, which Mr Chapman said was what the lamb industry needed to mature to a competitive level against other proteins.
“The sheep and lamb industry are so far behind the beef industry when it comes to traceability it is not funny,” he said.
He said eID enabled traceability benefits during a disease outbreak, while the storage of individual animal data provided opportunities for producers to further improve their production systems.
“By guaranteeing full traceability, it assures long-term viability of our markets,” Mr Chapman said.
“On the other hand, the on farm benefits will streamline management because of better genetic monitoring and stock performance, which will lead to a process with more feedback through the supply chain and a greater return to the producers – in the past these benefits have been overlooked.”
He said it was disappointing mandatory eID had not been embraced nationally.
“People have to be careful not to just say no and push back without giving it go because there are far more benefits than there are negatives, however I don’t think we will see the full benefits until it is mandatory nationally,” Mr Chapman said.