Penalties risk as cattle farmers slow to order tags

Cattle farmers are not ordering ear tags and there is risk of a backlog and delays ahead of calving in January.

Farmers risk severe penalties and even prosecution if calves are not tagged within 21 days of birth.

Ordering is running at just 30% of expected levels, Mullinahone Co-op said this week. November is the peak month for herdowners buying tags, with farmers normally ordering close to 650,000 tag sets in November followed by another 450,000 in December.

Mullinahone said it is concerned that a backlog will develop in the lead-up to Christmas and over the new year.

The drop-off in ordering has arisen because no order form has been posted out to farmers as happened in previous years, the co-op said.

Weeks ago, it offered to send out an order form to farmers but the Department of Agriculture rejected the proposal on the basis that it would breach data privacy rules.

But neither has the Department written to herdowners informing them of the new tag supply arrangements introduced this autumn or reminding them of their tagging obligations.

Mullinahone believes that the uncertainty that has resulted from repeated changes to the new tagging contract has exacerbated the delay in farmers ordering tags.

Mullinahone’s EuroTags is still the only company that has received Department of Agriculture approval to supply cattle tags to farmers.

Galway firm Cormac Tagging has still not received final clearance to do so.