EU electronic tagging rules for sheep may be relaxed

SOME EASING of the conditions being imposed by the EU on the electronic tagging of sheep is in prospect

SOME EASING of the conditions being imposed by the EU on the electronic tagging of sheep is in prospect. Such tagging has been opposed by farming groups here and in the UK.

The Standing Committee for Food Chain and Animal Health has agreed a number of concessions which may be implemented by member states when tagging becomes mandatory for all new-born lambs from January 1st next.

The most significant was to allow electronic reading of ear tags to take place at critical control points such as markets and slaughter houses instead of at each single farm.

That would allow farmers to tag their lambs just before they are loaded onto lorries; the market or slaughterhouse would be left the task of scanning and electronically reading the ear tags so the movement can be recorded.

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While this relieves the farmer of the cost of purchasing a scanner, which could cut total costs by as much as 50 per cent, it will not fully resolve the issue.

Farmers without a scanner will not be able to identify which of his own sheep are left on the farm, and more particularly unable to account for deaths, and potentially unable to meet cross-compliance requirements.

Other concessions involved a simplified procedure for electronically tagging purchased store animals that live beyond 12 months and reduced information for the annual inventory.

The concessions made by the EU Standing Committee will be studied by the Department of Agriculture and Food, a spokeswoman said in Dublin yesterday.

The Irish authorities had sought a derogation from the regulations which was not given by the EU which has been pushing for electronic tagging of sheep since the foot and mouth crisis of 2001.

However, there was a broad welcome for the move by Northern Ireland Minister for Agriculture Michelle Gildernew

“Following intensive negotiations in Brussels we have been able to secure a number of vital concessions for our flock keepers,” she said. “The acceptance by the commission of third-party recording at critical control points will mean that markets and meat plants can read eartags and report movements directly to the Dard [Department of Agriculture and Rural Development] database,” she said. “This avoids the need for keepers to read eartags before animals leave the holding which means that the majority of keepers here will not have to purchase tag readers thus reducing costs very significantly.”