Under the new electronic identification of sheep arrangements, factories will operate central points of recording and provide farmers with a full printout of the tag numbers of the animals supplied, IFA sheep chair Sean Dennehy has told the Irish Farmers Journal.

A meeting took place this week between the IFA, Meat Industry Ireland and members from the main sheep plants including Dawn Meats, Irish Country Meats, Kepak Group and Kildare Chilling. The meeting focused on EID tagging, farmgate prices, the quality assurance scheme and factory charges. Reducing participation in the Bord Bia Sustainable Beef and Lamb Assurance Scheme has been a concern, with some farmers opting out due to lack of a guaranteed bonus payment. Dennehy said “there needs to be a significant increase in the quality assurance bonus, in the order of 30c/kg, to maintain and increase sheep farmer participation”.