Farmers voiced their anger and concern regarding the extension of electronic identification (EID) at the Westmeath IFA sheep meeting in Mullingar last Monday night. EID will be mandatory to all sheep from 1 June. At the meeting farmers enquired why EID is mandatory for them but it is not mandatory for marts and factories to facilitate electronic reading of tags at their premises. They also wondered why lambs marketed through the marts must have a full EID set which would cost considerably more.
Farmers voiced their anger and concern regarding the extension of electronic identification (EID) at the Westmeath IFA sheep meeting in Mullingar last Monday night. EID will be mandatory to all sheep from 1 June.
At the meeting farmers enquired why EID is mandatory for them but it is not mandatory for marts and factories to facilitate electronic reading of tags at their premises. They also wondered why lambs marketed through the marts must have a full EID set which would cost considerably more.
Other farmers questioned the benefits of the system as tagging costs will increase and wondered if improved traceability will make any difference to lamb prices. IFA National Sheep Committee chair Sean Dennehy said the IFA are seeking an urgent meeting with the Minister for Agriculture to address these issues before the introduction.
How it will work
Martin Farrell from the animal identification and movement division in the Department of Agriculture explained how the new system will work. All sheep moved from a holding will have to be identified electronically. Farrell said lambs moving directly to slaughter from the holding of origin can be identified with one electronic tag.
To coincide with the changes an information booklet will issue to farmers in May. Farrell said a new dispatch book will also issue to farmers at this time containing a barcode of serial numbers to facilitate the central points of recording (CPR) process. CPRs will be located in some factories and marts.
We plan on reading tag numbers electronically on arrival and providing farmers with a printout before they leave the factory
According to Farrell, farmers will not be required to manually write down each individual tag number in the dispatch book when slaughtering lambs or where presenting in a mart that is an approved CPR. Instead CPRs will scan EID tags of the sheep in each batch consigned to the premises and provide the farmer with a printed list of electronic tag numbers. This list is then attached to the dispatch book.
Site manager in Kepak Athleague Darragh McHugh said the factory is planning to allocate at least two staff members to manage the new process. “We plan on reading tag numbers electronically on arrival and providing farmers with a printout before they leave the factory,” McHugh explained.
Read more
All marts and factories must have EID readers – ICSA
Fifteen hill lambs to pay for 500 EID tags
Marts show interest in installing sheep EID systems
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