Australian farmers have had compulsory eID tagging for cattle since 2005, with sheep e-tagging taking effect this year.
It is unlikely that New Zealand sheep will be required to have individual electronic ear tags any time soon, despite the technology now being compulsory on all sheep and goats across the Tasman.
New Year’s Day marked the start of Australia’s compulsory sheep electronic identification (eID) sheep tagging programme, which until now had been compulsory only in the state of Victoria. Australian farmers have had compulsory eID tagging for cattle since 2005.
The national eID system for that country’s 75 million sheep is aimed at improving the biosecurity response in the event of disease outbreak and is the result of two years of planning and farmer communications led by Sheep Producers Australia and the Goat Industry Council.
The risk of a foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak has been a key motivator for the policy, with recent outbreaks in Indonesia spurring greater biosecurity attention in Australia.
The cost of a FMD outbreak in Australia is estimated at AU$80 billion in direct economic impact while also bringing loss of market access and reputational damage as an exporter.
Earlier disease outbreak alerts have shown it took only one hour to identify 320 cattle suspected of having Johne’s disease by using eID tags, which disclosed animal grazing locations and disease status.
In contrast it took three days to locate 74 sheep infected with anthrax on a Victoria property.
The potential for sheep tagging here in NZ was first raised when the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) programme was developed in the early 2000s.
The system is not currently mandated for the sheep sector, and NAIT officials referred Farmers Weekly to Beef + Lamb NZ about the possibility of eID sheep tagging coming into play here.
BLNZ senior technical policy manager Will Halliday said the agency strongly supports improving traceability of sheep movements through electronic tracing at a mob level.
That includes the phasing out of paper-based Animal Status Declarations (ASD)s and replacing them with an electronic equivalent (eASD).
“These have been tested and used on a voluntary basis. They work and are popular with farmers and meat processors.”
He said BLNZ does not support mandatory electronic individual identification for sheep as the costs significantly outweigh the modest additional benefits over mob-based traceability.
BLNZ said mob-level movement records are more relevant than individual animal tracking for managing FMD.
In contrast, individual eID systems like those used for cattle and deer in NAIT were developed overseas as a safeguard for diseases like mad cow disease, which require long-term tracking of individual animals.
“eID for sheep would also be costly and impractical due to their large numbers, behaviour such as jumping and difficulty moving in single file, and the extensive systems in which they are farmed.
“Sheep are moved far less frequently than cattle in New Zealand, reducing the potential benefits of eID.”
Enhancing existing systems rather than introducing costly individual ID is a better approach, and strengthening mob movement recording offers a practical, effective solution, Halliday said.
Andrew Cooke, chief tech officer at Map of Ag and founder of agri software development company Rezare, was involved in early NAIT developments.
He said the ability to handle eID tags was considered at the time but not taken further.
He said today most sheep breeders would already have individual sheep eID in their flocks.
“The tech we can do, but people will ask ‘What is the value in having it?’
“I think for most commercial farmers the answer is no. You make the decision to draft the animals at the point you handle them, so building up information is not as vital.”
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