The Farmers Mart Oct/Nov 2014 - Issue 36 | Page 36

SHEEP

CALL FOR SHEEP FARMERS
TO DOUBLE-TAG FLOCKS
Start thinking about electronic tagging historic flocks
before January 2015 – or risk lower prices.
The LAA, NSA and NFU have
teamed up to call on British sheep
farmers to double-tag their historic
sheep flock to maximise selling
options when they move off their
holding after 1 January 2015.
The industry won a compromise from
the EU and Defra allowing the historic
ewe flock – those identified before the
implementation of sheep electronic
identification (EID) – a dispensation
from the new EU regulations ushering
in EID.
The dispensation finishes at the end of
the year, so all breeding sheep moving
to another farm, holding, or anywhere
other than direct to slaughter – including
through a market – will need to have
their individual tag number recorded.
For the historic flock it is practically
impossible, without EID, to physically
read and write down a 16 digit number
from the potentially scuffed and worn out
ear tags of thousands of ewes across
the country.
Chris Dodds, Executive Secretary, LAA,
said: “Markets sell 85% of cull sheep
and following their sale about half of
these move off the market to non-abattoir

holdings. It’s simply unrealistic to ask
vendors, auction market staff and buyers
to re Y[