SA farming groups oppose EID

It comes after Vic Agriculture Minister Jaala Pulford recently flagged plans to make them compulsory for sheep and goats in the state.

Ms Pulford and VFF livestock president Ian Feldtmann will discuss the matter at a meeting on September 16.

Livestock SA president Geoff Power said the paper-based traceability system was working well in SA, with more than 95 per cent compliance.

He said the infrastructure cost to implement EID readers at saleyards and abattoirs would run into millions and still not achieve 100 per cent compliance.

"As we know from previous experience farmers are always the ones that these costs are passed on to," Mr Power said.

"You can cut out an EID tag just as easily as an ordinary sheep tag so it won't do anything for stock theft either."

Mr Power said more research was needed, with RFID already old technology and areas such as microchipping rapidly evolving.

"There is certainly a place for them (electronic ID tags) and some producers are getting a lot of information on individuals within a flock but we are against it being mandatory," he said.

WoolProducers Australia president Richard Halliday agreed the choice of EID should be voluntary.

"The VFF has the same position as us but the government which has given out tag rebates are not listening to those in the field," he said.

Mr Halliday said it would be a huge task logistically and add considerable costs to the supply chain.

"Imagine Naracoorte where there are 26,000-27,000 first-cross ewes running them, all through a panel reader, before the sale and again after they are sold," he said.

More "pull through" was needed from the front end of industry, first with processors offering financial rewards to those supplying sheep and lambs with electronic tags before they considered supporting it.

Australian Livestock & Property Agents chief executive officer Andy Madigan has called on the Vic government to keep its pre-election promise last year and not introduce a mandatory sheep EID system until there is a nationally consistent approach.

"If the system is at all to work, it must be a national system," he said.

"It is not the state livestock identification it is the national livestock identification system.

"It will be expensive and detrimental to Vic producers if they have to tag sheep, especially those sold in NSW or SA which will not be read.

"Equally, sheep from NSW or SA sold in Vic will not have tags."

Mr Madigan said ALPA had not been given any assurances of the compatibility of all the different electronic tags with readers and whether they would read at the high throughput speeds required.