Victoria’s move on electronic identification for sheep splits industry, states
THE Victorian Government’s decision to go it alone on mandatory electronic identification for sheep has split the industry — and the nation.
THE Victorian Government’s decision to go it alone on mandatory electronic identification for sheep has split the industry — and the nation.
As revealed in The Weekly Times last week, all sheep and goats born in the state from January 1 next year must have a radio-frequency identification tag affixed.
By doing so, Victoria is set to become the first state in the nation to enforce a mandatory electronic ID system for sheep.
Victorian Agriculture Minister Jaala Pulford said the move — which has been roundly criticised and is a departure from Labor’s pre-election commitment of waiting for a national consensus on the issue — was acting on “compelling” evidence of “deficiencies in our current (visual tag) traceability system”.
Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce blasted the move, labelling it a “sheep tax” that would place “an unnecessary cost burden” on producers.
Australian Livestock Markets Association chairman Steve Loane urged the Federal Government to intervene, claiming saleyards would require $1 million in infrastructure upgrades to handle the switch, which would also add more than five hours to a typical sheep sale.
Opposition agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon said while he understood concerns about cost and implementation of a mandatory system, such a move was “inevitable”.
“Someone had to show leadership,” Mr Fitzgibbon told The Weekly Times.
While the plan has won cautious support in Victoria — the Victorian Farmers Federation and opposition agriculture spokesman Peter Walsh want a guarantee farmers will not be worse off financially — NSW Farmers Association president Derek Schoen said it would “cause chaos for interstate trade and would not reduce the risk of endemic disease in sheep and goats”.
Ms Pulford said farmers would not bear any financial pain, with a funding package — understood to be “significant” — expected to be announced in October. Under the program, tags will be “cost-neutral” in the first year, meaning farmers will pay the same amount for electronic tags as they do for the current visual tags — about 40c.
“I am confident we can do this without placing any additional cost burden on farmers,” Ms Pulford said.
“There will no doubt be people who think this is unnecessary but my responsibility is to protect our $2 billion industry and do what is right for Victoria.”
Ms Pulford said other states were watching the Victorian move closely and “at least another one” — believed to be Queensland — was “quite keen” to follow suit.
A spokesman for Queensland Agriculture Minister Leanne Donaldson said the Government was “broadly supportive of adopting electronic tags, but has set no timetable for implementation”. “We will be discussing tags with sheep producer representatives in the coming weeks,” the spokesman said.
South Australia is also believed to be quietly supporting a switch. The office of South Australian Agriculture Minister Leon Bignell failed to return Weekly Times requests for comment.
WHAT THEY SAID
JOEL FITZGIBBON
Federal opposition agriculture spokesman
“How long does one wait? Someone had to show leadership on the issue.”
NICK RYAN
Kilmore farmer
“It is a move with the times — eventually it had to happen. They say it won’t be added costs, but there will always be an expense. I have already got a scanner at home.”
MICHAEL MCCORMACK
Tallangatta Valley farmer
“The poor old sheep farmers have been fed a load of crap that it will cost them tens of thousands of dollars to put in the readers. It’s not mandatory for them to read the tag, they just have to put the tags in.”
JEFF MURRAY
Sheepmeat Council of Australia president
“What is particularly disappointing is the fact that this decision will have national ramifications, yet little or no national consultation has taken place.”
STUART MCLEAN
Victorian Sheep and Goat Identification committee chairman
“There is some compelling evidence as to why we need to move in this direction and obviously protecting the industry for the state, but also our farmers.”
ROSS STONE
Walpeup farmer
“I can understand why they want to do it, but I can see it causing a lot of grief on the handling side in the saleyards.”
RICHARD HALLIDAY
Woolproducers Australia president
“Obviously the cost of infrastructure upgrades and the cost of tags in the long term will be passed to producers.”
CHARLES MILNE
Victorian chief veterinary officer
“Yes, we’ve got a traceability system for sheep but it just isn’t capable of operating quickly enough, either in a food safety incident or… an animal disease incident.”
LEONARD VALLANCE
Victorian Farmers Federation livestock president
“Livestock producers need a guarantee that they won’t be disadvantaged by the cost of fitting electronic tags to their stock.”
GRAEME NICOLL
Boinka farmer
“I don’t know much about it, but it’s just another cost isn’t it? We want to know the costs and subsidy and the end results.”
PETER WALSH
Victorian opposition agriculture spokesman
“The minister must guarantee that there won’t be adverse effects on our farmers before (we) can consider supporting what is currently on the table.”
NIALL BLAIR
NSW Agriculture Minister
“There is a clear message that the current system works and radio frequency identification tags would create headaches for NSW producers and the industry at large.”
CRAIG PERTZEL
Kerr & Co Hamilton livestock manager
“I can’t see the logistics of how it is going to work in the commercial reality of 40,000-50,000 lambs in a yard.”
BARNABY JOYCE
Federal Agriculture Minister
“This is going to bring an excessive form of regulation to Victorian farmers, giving a distinct advantage to the operative costs to other states in the sheep industry.”
DEREK SCHOEN
NSW Farmers Association president
“We are disappointed that Victoria has committed to a system that will cause chaos in interstate trade and will now reduce the risk of endemic disease in sheep and goats.”