Producers are still demanding answers to clarify what does and doesn't need to be tagged when it comes to the mandatory national roll out of an electronic identification (eID) scheme.
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To help answer these questions NSW Department of Primary Industries director general Scott Hansen will attend Agriculture Minister Dugald Saunder's information forum at Broken Hill on Thursday.
Mr Hansen along with chief veterinary officer Dr Sarah Britton and sheep and goat eID reference committee chair Dougal Gordon will be there helping to clarify what will and won't change under the scheme.
But what he wants to make clear ahead of the meeting is that rangeland goats currently not tagged won't need an eID under the new rules.
What will change is the tags producers are already using to tag goats that need to be tagged.
"At the moment if you have goats and you are required to tag them you will be required to tag them (with an eID)," Mr Hansen said.
"You will just have to move from a visual flock tag to an individual electronic tag.
"Those that are legally required to have visual flock tags are going to have to change that (from visual to eID) by 2027 when they leave the farm."
Mr Hansen said rangeland goats stopped being rangeland harvested goats if producers undertook animal husbandry activity including treating them with a chemical or giving them an injection.
"That moves them from rangeland harvested to being managed," he said.
Mr Hansen said there was work at a national level to get a national tender approach to bring the overall cost of tags down.
He added that the assistance from the government should not be 'burned up" on subsidies through the price of tags; instead the price of tags should be brought down by the market of all sheep and goats required to be tagged to see that shift in price.
"We are keen for the federal government to lead a tender process so we have been focusing our efforts to assist people with infrastructure requirements," he said.
"Bearing in mind some producers will need no more than a $800 wand reader, others will need a full set up with panel readers and some will want the ability to use automatic drafters."
There is more detail to come on subsidies.
Mr Hansen said the department was working with reference groups to work out what the costs would be and would deliver a series of options to help the government.
In addition, Mr Hansen said the department had put on three staff to work in this space, two of which had been relocated within the department and another recruited to drive the program and deal with stakeholders.
He said producers can take their questions to Local Land Services or the local DPI office.
He said there were grants available for processors and saleyards to assist with planned upgrades.
Applications for this opened on February 1 and will close on April 7.
They then have six months of receiving the grant funding to submit their plans.
"Some saleyards need power to yards because they don't have power out there," he said.
In regards to questions about whether the tags would prevent an outbreak of disease like foot and mouth (FMD), Mr Hansen said the individual tags did not stop the nation from getting a disease.
But he said the tags would provide the ability to monitor the risk and help the government trace and contain an outbreak quicker.
"This will give us the chance to continue our trade and inform our trading partners we are on top of it so we can get back into markets quicker," he said.
"The last FMD outbreak in Japan took six months to get on top of the outbreak, another 12 months to mop up and provide evidence that they had it all under control and then another six years to get back into the US.
"It's being able to give confidence and assurance to customers we have this under control and that we know where everything is.
"The producers in the west are the lowest risk group but if we lose a market they lose their market access like everyone else does."
Mr Hansen said the benefit of implementing eID after Victoria was that NSW had the next two years to work with saleyards to get their set up right.
He said reference groups had travelled to Victoria to watch saleyards process and read livestock, how they handle lost tags and ask questions about how they would have done it differently.
"We want to keep using the time to continue to learn from those who already have it in place...and make sure it's purpose built for the current operation environment in NSW."
In recognition of the scale of the sheep and goat industry in NSW, Mr Hansen said the timeframe in NSW was built deliberately to meet that 2027 deadline.
"That was made abundantly clear by farmers that this timeframe was required for the rules to be developed and infrastructure to be in place (so producers) could make decisions on how they were going to integrate this into their business in a way in which gave them time to do so.
"That is different to what other states are implementing.
"So NSW also has a different order for this than what Victoria implemented.
"In Victoria producers went first then after everything was tagged, processors turned on and the saleyards turned on.
"NSW recognises the benefit of having producers who want to tag in advance of any deadline are able to ensure their processor is reading those tags and they are getting some value out of that activity post farm gate.
"And it also provides the opportunity for processors to be in a position to read and use this as part of their market access and marketing activities.
"So NSW processors are the first to go on the timeline so they will record tags, which will enable producers to know the tags they are putting in the ears of animals are actually being read by someone down the supply chain."
Mr Hansen said the eID rules will be delivered in the next six months as the department works with reference groups at a national level.
"We are not starting from scratch, we have over a decade of cattle rules to be able to start with and four years of Victorian rules on which to build.
Once the rules are drafted, he said there would be consultation in NSW to ensure it fits the state's production system and the industry expectation.
The Land approached Agriculture Minister Dugald Saunders with a range of questions including what subsidies might be offered, however he did not respond.
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