Still waiting on NLIS call

Last December, ABARES sought input from stakeholders on alternative proposals for improving the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) for sheep and goats.

This led to fears that a mandatory system of electronic tagging would be imposed, said NSW Farmers wool committee chair Ed Storey.

Seven months later, ABARES is still working on a final regulation impact statement for a mandatory electronic identification system for sheep and goats.

Mr Storey said enough was enough.

“Far too much time and energy has been spent by all parties to progress a system that will ultimately have a negative impact on sheep and goat producers,” he said.

“The impracticalities of implementing such a system would far outweigh any perceived benefits for our members and producers.

“Furthermore, the existing mob-based system has been clearly shown to meet the national livestock traceability performance standards in NSW and we support the enhancement of the current mob-based system.”

Before the close of submissions in December, NSW Farmers ran a survey on the topic.

The survey asked more than 500 producers whether they would support the introduction of mandatory electronic tags, and more than 93 per cent responded “no”.

The NSW government also supports the current visual NLIS system over electronic tags, having conducted its own tests on the efficiency of the current mob-based identification system in 2011, which found 99.8pc of inspected sheep had been tagged and 98pc of national vendor declarations had been completed.

NSW Farmers has called on the federal government to take whatever action is necessary to conclude the work of ABARES on electronic tagging, and whatever action is necessary to end consideration of a mandatory system for sheep and goats.