Sheep farmers looking to save some money have four weeks left to buy lower-cost slaughter and permanent sheep tags tags, which they can then use as required over the coming months. From 1 October all new tags must be EID, which costs more. But visual tags purchased now can be used on next year’s lambs up until the cut off point of June 2019.

There have reports that ordering of tags by sheep farmers slowed down in recent weeks due to uncertainty over the what next steps might be taken by Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed – following objections to EID tagging. But ordering of tags has now returned to normal.