It will take $5 million to have a subsidy for the electronic identification (eID) for sheep and goats that would get tag costs under $1 for NSW producers.
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Industry sources have revealed to The Land it would cost this much to have a tag subsidy in place for a year and the funds would have come from money left over from the $38 million eID infrastructure rebate scheme that was announced in August last year.
But the rebate scheme that was supposed to close on March 31 for producers closed earlier.
This week The Land asked the how much had been spent from the eID scheme and if there was any money left over. A NSW Department of Primary Industries spokesperson said the scheme closed to saleyards and processors on January 31, for agents on March 31 but for producers, the scheme closed on March 14.
"Demand for the NSW sheep and goat eID infrastructure rebate scheme was high," the spokesperson said.
"The scheme provided rebates to help offset the cost to purchase and install eID related infrastructure and equipment."
As of October 13, 2023, the government had received 585 applications from primary producers, including 290 for autodrafters. By November 21, more than 1500 applications had been received.
The Land then put to Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty's office about whether NSW would announce a tag subsidy for producers, to which there was no comment.
NSW, under the Coalition, was the first government to back an eID rollout, which it announced at the NSW Farmers' conference in July 2022 in what was considered at the time as a knee-jerk reaction to the foot and mouth disease risk off our northern shores. Yet under Labor, it is the last government to back a tag subsidy, instead waiting for a national tag tender process.
"There will not be a national tender, Sheep Producers Australia looked into that and found it didn't work and wouldn't help," said WoolProducers general manager Adam Dawes.
"NSW will have to keep up with what the other states have put in place.
"The tag tender process process in Victoria is effectively a process to administer a grower levy funded tag subsidy program. It's not a tag tender process, it's to administer a tag subsidy."
Mr Dawes said if 30 to 40 million tags were required for a year, market forces would come into play and work out competitive pricing.
"NSW has come up with money for the nice haves with autodrafters but not come up with grower support for the fundamental part of the system, which is ear tags," he said.
NSW Farmers' sheepmeat committee chair Chris Kemp said the government must financially support all producers to transition to government-mandated eID so that no-one misses out, and this includes funding to reduce tag costs.
