The national roll out of electronic sheep identification was closer but funding options remained a sticking point, saleyards operators heard at the Australian Livestock Saleyards Association conference.
ALSA chief executive Mark McDonald said the Victorian eID system had been in place for around 18 months and the national roll out was the logical next step.
Mr McDonald said the organisation was fully supportive of the Victorian system.
"The system is mature enough to go to a national system," he said.
One of the limitations of a national roll out was access to funding at a national level.
"There is no technical or system issue for it not to go national. The technology at saleyards is now proven," he said.
Mr McDonald said there an expectation that some abattoirs would start to discount animals not carrying electronic ID tags.
"There have been numerous delegations coming through Victoria. There is a perception that Victorian lambs are better placed in this transition because they are all tagged," he said.
VFF Livestock Group chairman and conferenc panel member Leonard Vallence, said the issues around the introduction of a national system included the policies of abattoirs and particularly those under construction.
"When they open the doors to a new high tech plant, what will their buying preferences be," he said.
"They will have a lot of technology in the new plants and they will want to be able to utilise it.
"I envisage that there will be a lot of automation and robotics that will rely heavily on sheep eID to function."
He said without individual ID carcase feedback was not possible.
"Other states need to work out how to fund their involvement - we need to implement it," he said.
Mr Leonard said auto drafting should have been included in the introduction of eID that would have also enabled weights to be displayed.
Connectivity in saleyards and the mobile phone network needed to be improved.
Carcase feedback that included fat content and meat eating quality to producers would increase as adoption increased.
The lamb industry needed to continue to invest to maintain its position in the world market, Mr Vallence said.
