Minister Michael Creed has announced changes to the Department’s plan to roll out mandatory electronic tagging across all sheep. The timeline announced in May to extend electronic tagging to all sheep moving off a holding from 1 October 2018 has been delayed and will now be implemented in two instalments.

The extension of mandatory tagging off all sheep has been pushed out to 1 June 2019 and all sheep moving off a holding will be required to be electronically identified with two options available as follows:

  • A. a single electronic slaughter tag, where lambs less than 12 months of age are moved directly from the birth holding to a slaughter plant
  • B. an electronic tag set, in the case of all other sheep movements.
  • National sheep identification system

    There will still be changes to the national sheep identification system on 1 October 2018, with tag suppliers no longer selling permanent tags. This leaves two types of tags available to sheep farmers from 1 October 2018:

  • 1. single electronic slaughter tags (for animals less than 12 months moving directly from the farm of birth to slaughter).
  • 2. electronic tag sets (for all other sheep movements).
  • Minister Creed says the two-phased implementation will “allow all 2018 season lambs to exit the system prior to 1 June 2019 without having to be identified electronically and provides farmers with an extended opportunity to use up existing stocks of conventional tags prior to that date”.

    electronic identification will simplify the sheep tagging system, significantly reduce the record keeping requirements for sheep farmers moving sheep to livestock marts, slaughter plants and export assembly centres and provide a more accurate and robust sheep traceability system – Minister Creed

    Higher once-off payment

    The Minister’s announcement in May of a once-off payment of up to €50 to help farmers cover the cost of mandatory electronic tagging received widespread criticism from farmers and farm organisations. The latest announcement includes a doubling of this payment, with up to €100 now on offer. The payment will apply to the first order of electronic tags post-1 October 2018 and the Department says this will be paid automatically with its records used to calculate the amount due to each farmer under the scheme.

    Commenting on the changes Minister Creed said: “Since the announcement in May, my Department and I have engaged constructively with stakeholders in relation to the practical concerns raised in relation to the introduction of the new system. Having carefully considered the issues raised I am pleased to be in a position to now respond positively to these concerns, whilst still delivering on the benefits of extending electronic identification to the industry as a whole”.

    Creed added that changes to the previously announced introduction on 2 May will also address farmer concerns on using up existing stocks of tags. “One of the main concerns was the need for an appropriate transition period for farmers to use up already purchased stocks of tags, to simplify arrangements for store lamb fatteners who would have purchased lambs already tagged with the old tags, and to enable marts and factories put in place the necessary infrastructure and systems – the staged implementation of the new requirements takes account of the varying concerns”.

    Simplified system

    The Minister has once again stated his belief that electronic tagging will simplify sheep tagging and recording procedures.

    He said: “The extension of electronic identification will simplify the sheep tagging system, significantly reduce the record keeping requirements for sheep farmers moving sheep to livestock marts, slaughter plants and export assembly centres and provide a more accurate and robust sheep traceability system in support of animal health and public health objectives and thus support the further development and sustainability of the sheep industry.

    "The effectiveness of EID is enhanced by the participation of marts and slaughter plants in electronically capturing the identification number of sheep and providing a printout to the farmer for association with the dispatch docket. This facility enables farmers to record only the total number of sheep consigned on the dispatch docket rather than the 15 digit individual tag numbers – this saves time and improves accuracy.

    "This move to full EID will protect Ireland’s reputation as a source of safe and secure food and animals and will put Ireland’s sheep traceability system on a par with other major competitor exporting countries in maintaining and securing new international markets for Irish sheepmeat”.