The Department of Agriculture has invited tenders for the next contract to sell cattle ear tags to farmers. The tender was published on 24 May and submissions will close on 27 June.

Companies looking to win the contract must be able to supply all of the following: conventional tags (and applicators); tissue tags (and applicators) which provide for tissue sampling for detection of BVD and DNA analysis subsequent to the BVD test; electronic tags (and applicators) that combine all the features of conventional tags; electronic bolus (and applicator); replacement tags; and birth registration documents.

“Tenderers that fail to tender for the items as indicated will be rejected as non-compliant,” the Department has said.

The contract is currently held by Mullinahone co-op, which charges a flat €2.70 per animal for one conventional and one tissue tag.

The Department will only be selecting one supplier. This is despite having come under pressure earlier in the year to create some competition in the niche sector by selecting more than one supplier, as is the norm in most European countries.

However, we recently reported that despite only having one supplier in Ireland, cattle tags are cheaper over here than in the UK.

It is estimated that the winner of the contract will spend some €18m, excluding VAT, over the term, which will run for three years plus two years’ extension, subject to renewal.

Approximately 2.3m bovine animals are tagged and registered each year mainly in the spring/early summer period in approximately 80,000 breeding herds.

Read more

Cattle tags cheaper here than in UK

Coveney confirms single supplier once again for cattle tags