A meeting held in the South East to discuss a tag exemption for vendor-bred sheep and lambs consigned direct from the property of birth to the abattoir has highlighted the deep division among the state's producers in their attitude to mandatory eID.
Mount Burr prime lamb producer Duan Williams called the public meeting at Lucindale last Friday in frustration that the SA Sheep and Goat Traceability Steering Committee - of which he is a member of - has ignored repeatedly his calls to investigate this exemption.
With just three days notice, the meeting was attended by more than 40 producers, agents and industry representatives.
Mr Williams says he had another 32 apologies, from people who support his proposed exemption.
However a motion calling for Livestock SA to dismiss the 12-member steering committee (made up of sheep producers, agents, processors, saleyard and PIRSA representatives, who have spent the past four months deliberating the best way foward for eID) and replace it with a group of "genuine sheep producers" did not get up.
The vote was tied at 15-all.
During debate, some producers spoke in favour of the state's 10.8 million sheep all being e-tagged and could see the benefits of market access and even the ability to use the data, which could be collected from the tags to make flock management decisions.
Others were furious that Livestock SA had not "pushed back" on the state and federal governments' decision to introduce mandatory sheep eID from January 1, 2025.
Tantanoola prime lamb producer Peter Altschwager - who put the dismissal motion forward - said there were still issues in the cattle industry, despite individual NLIS tags being introduced more than 20 years.
He says there are still many issues of non-compliance and shared that during planning for a recent European Union-accreditation audit, he found 40 per cent more cattle "on the books" than in his herd due to the processor not removing them from the database.
He says putting e-tags in his lambs heading direct to slaughter "would be a waste of resources for no gain" and is confident the existing mob-based system is fully traceable.
"I have no doubt they (abattoirs) have paid us properly all of these years with the numbers we have supplied them with," he said.
"Have you ever been in a restaurant where they have supplied you with the number of the animal you are eating?"
Mr Williams says he has been overwhelmed by the support for his vendor-bred exemption and says the tied motion does not detract from the strong message that he believes Livestock SA was sent by local producers.
"My main hope is that Livestock SA start advocating for sheep producers, and particularly prime lamb producers, and when the steering committee recommendations are presented, they look at them objectively in the knowledge that we want this exemption," he said.
Mr Williams remains unconvinced that the "tens of million of dollars" producers would need to spend on tags each year will be worthwhile and that allowing producers to keep working with the present system, when delivering lambs to slaughter, was the best way forward.
"We heard a lot in the meeting about why running a split system would create issues but we already have the two systems working side by side in Vic for four years now with NSW and SA sheep going to Vic abattoirs without electronic tags," he said.
One of the most compelling arguments for eID implementation in every sheep across SA may come from the processors.
Livestock SA chief executive officer Travis Tobin says the state's two major processors - Thomas Foods International and JBS Australia - have stated to him that they will not buy lambs without an e-tag after the implementation date.
Conmurra sheep producer Elke Hocking also reminded the meeting that back in 2017, Sheepmeat Council of Australia had supported an exemption of lambs to slaughter needing visual tags with PIC numbers displayed.
This had quickly been overridden by the Australian Meat Industry Council.
"Are we prepared for Livestock SA to spend a huge amount of time when processors on July 1 2025 will come out and say well we aren't going to buy your livestock?" she said.
"The processors are our customers.
"Their customers are asking for full traceability systems so from an industry point of view, we need a fully-traceable system."
The SA Sheep & Goat Traceability Steering Committee is meeting this week to finalise its business case, which will be presented to Livestock SA next week and then to Primary Industries Minister Clare Scriven for her to decide on the details and timelines for SA.
Before settling on a position, Mr Tobin says they are still consulting with Livestock SA members to ensure they fully understand the context of pursuing specific animal class exemptions.
So far, except for last Friday's meeting, Livestock SA was not hearing widespread producer support for any sheep exemptions, he said.
"If you ask anyone of course they are going to say yes to an exemption but it is not as simple as that," he said.
"We have been talking to the state government about exemptions and we have always been advised that they are not considering state specific exemptions."
Mr Tobin said the state and territory Agriculture Ministers had agreed on three separate occasions to a nationally consistent system and the three relevant industry peak bodies - Goat Industry Council of Australia, Wool Producers Australia and Sheepmeat Council of Australia - also did not support specific exemptions.
"For an exemption to succeed, we would need to convince all the states to turn around what they have previously agreed to," he said.
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