510,000 tags lost annually

Over 510,000 cattle tags were lost on Irish farms during the last year. The startling statistic was revealed by the Minister for Agriculture in the DÄil this week after being questioned on the issue by Fine Gael TD Seymour Crawford.

The figures compiled by the Department of Agriculture also showed that nearly 100,000 animals lost both tags in the 12 month period up to the end of August 2006. Mr Crawford is demanding that the Minister take as tough a line with the providers of tags as her Department does with farmers who have the misfortune of an animal losing a tag before or during transit to marts or factories.

"There seems to be little effort by the Minister to look at alternative means of identification which would guarantee total security,'' Crawford said. The Minister stated in a written response that she was "satisfied that the current tag in use provides the best solution for the identification of cattle in Ireland at present''.

Liam Egan of Mullinahone Co-op who recently won the contract to supply Irish farmers with over 14,000,000 cattle tags annually said that the 510,000 lost tags represents a loss rate of 3.65% which he said "stacks up very well against other EU countries.''