Costings for a national mandatory sheep and goat identification scheme (eID) has been the biggest question raised by industry.
Who is going to pay for it?
That's why NSW Agriculture Minister Dugald Saunders said the next steps would be working out how much each state was willing to contribute to a subsidy program.
"If we need to tip in $3 million each where does that get us? How many tags will that get us?" Mr Saunders said.
"That's the next step figuring out the number of tags we need and how to subsidise it.
"This is the main thing people are asking me; how much are you going to pay me? We are still working on it.
"It's hard to know if a tag costs $1.40, will we pay half? Probably, but I can't work that out until we get all the other states on board."
When asked if the government's decision on eID was a knee-jerk reaction to foot and mouth disease (FMD) and they jumped too early, Mr Saunders said: "we didn't jump early'.
"NSW has been a state lagging for the past five years, this has been building up for a long time," he said.
"As the last version of the ag ministerial meeting there was not an agreement as NSW was not prepared to do it."
What changed NSW mind?
"FMD, 100 per cent," Mr Saunders said.
"If you don't make a call when things are imminent...when will you do it?"
Mr Saunders said it was a tough decision but there were not many people that told him it was a 'bad call'.
This is despite The Land's poll of producers at Dubbo sheep sale split right down the middle on whether eID should be mandatory for sheep and goats.
"With FMD on the doorstep they know there is a need for traceability," Mr Saunders said.
"And there will be some tough conversations.
"But you need a starting point ... it will take five years.
"It took that long with Victoria and they had heaps of problems along the way."
Mr Saunders said Victoria had feedback on what worked and what didn't work.
"We need to learn from that, we don't need to do same mistakes as they did, lets start fresh....and start where we are ahead of the game."
"I think industry needs to be part of it, it will be slightly different for each state and we will probably tip in more than others as we have the biggest flocks.
"But it has to be federally driven so everyone is involved."
