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Back to Menu Electronic Identification for Sheep Galloway News Farming Supplement
Electronic identification (EID) of sheep has been on our radar for six years. Now that we are looking down the barrel of the gun there are still plenty of issues that need to be sorted out before the day that the new regulations kick in at the end of 2009. Whether or not the regulations will be implemented at all is not one of them. I won’t add to the acres of newsprint that have been covered by others who have explained, in great detail, why EID will be waste of time and money. The time for that argument has slipped passed and we need to move on. The sooner we all come to terms with that the better. Fight to the bitter end, yes by all means if that will make you feel better, but the people who are representing us in negotiations with government need to be able to enter the debate, at this late stage, without the fear of being persecuted by the sheep farmers that they are trying to help. It’s not giving in it’s being realistic. Even now there are still a number of other options that are being touted as possible ways to gain support to overturn the EU’s decision to implement the legislation. The daftest one of all is to “take to the streets” with our grievances. This I would suggest would achieve exactly nothing in fact I’m sure that a negative result would be achieved. The streets are brimming full of ordinary people who are burdened with unnecessary bureaucracy. Try asking plumbers and builders, etc about rules and regulations. Try having a chat to ordinary members of the public about bad laws. They’ll all have their own favourite bad law that will make their blood pressure soar just at the mere mention of it. Many of them will be surprised that we don’t already track our animals electronically. They probably even have an animal of their own that is chipped for identification purposes. Events last week have shown that if we keep focused on the practical problems connected with EID then changes to the legislation can be effected. The concessions, that have recently been secured from Brussels, now means that sheep with electronic tags will only have to be scanned at critical control points such as markets and abattoirs. This news, generally, has been well received and it probably makes sense to take the technical stuff away from thousands of electronically challenged sheep farmers and place it in the hands of a few professionals at control points. However, the whole concept of EID came about because the EU recognised that it would be impossible for a country like ours, with high volumes of livestock, to record individual sheep movements without the use of electronic aids. This latest concession now puts it beyond all doubt that the system will not be able to cope using the technology that we have at the moment. Tag manufacturers may put on demonstrations where their tame sheep will file through an electronic tag reader in single file and at a gentle pace. But, trials have shown that thousands of feral Blackie ewe lambs, in a market, whizzing three deep through a tag reading machine will be a different story all together. How the authorities may use this heap of inaccurate and therefore worthless information in the event of a disease outbreak is unclear. But, as a source of information for them to perform on farm compliance checks - forget about it. That’s some comfort at least. |