SA saleyards fear funding nowhere near enough for eID infrastructure

The three saleyards which hold weekly sheep and lamb markets - Dublin, Mount Gambier and Naracoorte - are still in the dark about how much state government funding they will be eligible for and are frustrated it may fall well short of what they need.

They also continue to push for full funding of the necessary equipment and infrastructure, including stick readers, panel readers, tablets and laptops, rather than 75 per cent being offered under the scheme.

Opposition ag spokesperson Nicola Centofanti says Primary Industries Minister Clare Scriven's handling of the process has been "nothing short of slow and confusing", with a seven-month delay between the $12.8-million funding announcement and when PIRSA released the essential equipment and infrastructure guidelines for saleyards late last year.

The guidelines state a small saleyard (which yards less than 100,000 head per annum) will be eligible for up to $15,000 for software, plus $8000 in Wi-Fi connectivity, while a medium saleyard (100,000-600,000/annum throughput) is eligible for up to $125,000 in rebates for structural modifications, plus the same software and Wi-Fi amounts.

Dr Centofanti called on the state government to ensure these thresholds are based on five-year averages, rather than a single year.

She said Mount Gambier could have been disadvantaged with its yardings dropping from 121,596 in 2018-19 to 67,815 in 2022-23, in part due to SE producers bypassing local yards in the past year to avoid SA's stringent footrot inspection at markets.

This would have made it a small saleyard and only eligible for a couple of hand readers.

But Ms Scriven confirmed to Stock Journal that Mount Gambier would be a medium-sized saleyard and said there was no suggestion categorisation would be based on the past 12 months alone.

She also stressed the saleyard subsidies were flexible and encouraged saleyard operators to apply for additional funding if they needed it.

These figures will undergo a "needs analysis" - an independent technical assessment to ensure that all the requested equipment and infrastructure is essential.

Nutrien Mount Gambier agent Sam O'Connor is concerned $125,000 is nowhere near enough funding.

"We are hopefully going through a major cattle yard upgrade, (Grant District) council has not been able to budget for new expenditure like this and the true cost of what we need to do to comply is $700,000," he said.

Mr O'Connor says the five agents all require their own scanning equipment and anything less will be unworkable and add hours to scanning impacting on the welfare of staff and animals.

"If they implement this without properly funding it, they will effectively destroy saleyards," he said.

Mount Gambier combined agents chair Brad Holdman said personally, he was in favour of eID if it could enhance biosecurity of the state's sheep flock or provide a market advantage, but says they cannot accept anything less than 100pc funding of the infrastructure.

"Grant District Council are a small council with a small budget so even 25pc of $700,000 is still a long-term business decision over a number of years," he said.

Naracoorte Lucindale Council director of infrastructure and services Daniel Willsmore said they were surprised to learn the Naracoorte Regional Livestock Exchange - the state's largest saleyards - is also classed as a medium-sized saleyard.

This classification deems the facility to only require less than half the current infrastructure.

In 2022-23 there were 381,257 sheep and lambs through the yards.

"The Naracoorte Regional Livestock Exchange has been an open book with the Livestock SA eID implementation committee and then again with the PIRSA eID implementation committee and have provided trading pricing and design to these committees," he said.

"The NRLE Board's position is for full cost recovery of this mandated system."

It is a similar story at the SA Livestock Exchange at Dublin, where manager Andrew Lepley says it is unfair that they are being offered only four panel readers when they have four selling agents and eight drafts operating.

Meanwhile, Jamestown, which only holds monthly sales and has two agents and two drafts, is being offered the same.

Mr Lepley also sees a short timeline as unrealistic.

"The minister in question, Clare Scriven, has given saleyards a start date of January 2025," he said.

"Well I would say she has her years a bit confused. Let's try for January 2028 and see where we all finish up."

Ms Scriven clarified there is no mandatory start date for saleyards, processor to commence scanning and property-to-property movements, but PIRSA's industry advisory committee were working towards one.

Livestock SA president Joe Keynes hopes negotiations will ensure scanning of lambs born after January 1, 2025 is ready to go in saleyards early next year, but concedes if this is not the case, having an exemption for terminal lambs until it is should be considered.

Despite a couple of industry bodies withdrawing their support Mr Keynes remains confident a national eID scheme for sheep and farmed goats will occur.

He encouraged producers to make the most of the state government's generous stage 1 funding - $9.3m- and keep putting tags into their ewe lambs to avoid double tagging later.

"At the end of the day, we will end up with eID across the country. In my opinion. it is just what the dates look like that is fluid," he said.

As of February 23, only 446,940 eID tags have been approved under SA's eID rebate scheme from 376 applications.

Ms Scriven urges producers to get their applications in before April 30, with the figure representing only 45pc of all eligible eID devices (sky blue tags) purchased in 2023.

For 2024, eligible tags will be discounted by up to 50pc at the point of sale rather than the rebate of the first year.

Mr Keynes says it is critical PIRSA increase their industry extension after their recent regional meeting in Robe showed many producer members had legitimate questions about the process and how to apply for subsidies.

Ms Scriven says PIRSA is promoting eID implementation to all SA producers through emails, social media, and fact sheets, and through industry representatives on the Industry Advisory Committee.

"PIRSA will also be having a strong presence at all regional field days throughout the year and will promote eID implementation and producer responsibilities," she said.