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The Department of Agriculture must make the installation of EID reading systems mandatory, ICSA sheep chair Sean McNamara has said.
He described the current situation where farmers must use the technology and not factories as "ludicrous".
Fork out
“Sheep farmers cannot be expected to fork out for electronic tags if they’re not going to be read,” he said.
There is no obligation on marts and factories to install systems capable of reading EID tags and provide printed dispatch dockets to farmers.
The least we should be able to expect is that the need for written dispatch dockets would be eliminated
From 1 June 2019, farmers must tag all sheep and lambs with an electronic tag set, except lambs under 12 months of age moving directly to slaughter, which only require a single electronic tag.
Forced
“The reality is that mandatory EID tagging has been forced on us. It will do nothing that would result in sheep farmers achieving a better price,” McNamara said.
“Neither will the consumer benefit, as there is no additional traceability gained from their use. Why are we wasting our money?
“The least we should be able to expect is that the need for written dispatch dockets would be eliminated and that the factory or mart would be able to print off the necessary paperwork.”
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