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Stock agents claim state agriculture departments are trying to get them to enforce sheep identification laws, while Victoria’s Department of Primary Industries and the Sheepmeat Council of Australia believed more effort was needed by all industry players.

After a meeting of the Victorian ALPA branch in Bendigo last week that reinforced support of voluntary, but not mandatory, tagging of sheep with radio-frequency identification (RFID), Australian Livestock and Property Agents Association chief executive officer Andy Madigan said enforcement of the existing visual tag-based system for sheep was a national issue.

Primary industries departments nationally were trying to shift enforcement of livestock identification laws onto stock agents due to the cutting and lack of monitoring resources in the government agencies, he said.

“We believe it is not our role as agents to verify what the producer has done or to enforce the laws of each state,” he said.

Mr Madigan also believed the Department of Primary Industries in Victoria was pushing for the mandatory introduction of RFID for sheep “sooner rather than later, which is against most of the industry”.

“The reason why the current system is failing is because there is not enough enforcement by those government agencies in all states.”

But Victorian Department of Primary Industries animal bio security and welfare director Dr Tony Britt said the tagging of every sheep that was sold wasn’t the primary problem with the current system. There were problems with accurate transcription of tag numbers onto the National Vendor Declaration by producers, onto the post-sale summary by agents and onto the mob-based movement file by sale yards to the National Livestock Identification System database, he said.

There were also design, transaction tag and interstate system difference issues with the current NLIS for sheep. Dr Britt agreed less monitoring and enforcement resources would be needed with an RFID system, but the department was focusing on working with industry to get the best out of the current visual tag and paper-based sheep system, while developing and testing the electronic option. “What we do have is a preference for system that meets Australia’s National Livestock Tracing Performance Standards… that specify how quickly sheep, cattle and pigs and other Foot-and-Mouth-Disease susceptible species can be located in a disease emergency.

“The system currently does not meet Australia’s National Livestock Tracing Performance Standards.” To get the best out of the current system would require considerable additional resources across the supply chain, from the state and territories, agents, producers and processors, he said.

Dr Britt said an independent report by the industry last year showed that to deal more effectively with “saleyard issues” there would need to be 36 additional government inspectors across Australia, including 10 more in Victoria. He maintained DPI Victoria would continue to monitor, report on the system’s performance and take appropriate regulatory action against non-compliance.

“But we are encouraging every part of the supply chain to lift their game. “Everybody in the supply chain has obligations in regards to the sheep NLIS.” Mr Madigan said ALPA had a “no tag no sale” policy for sheep, but he admitted some agents were accepting untagged sheep and others were tagging animals after receipt at sale yards.

ALPA supported greater enforcement of the livestock identification responsibilities of agents and producers, but this was a role for the government agencies, Mr Madigan said. “Agents are telling all their producer clients to ensure the National Vendor Declaration is fully and completely filled in, they are telling them to tag their sheep before they come to market, but some producers are just not doing that.”

Sheep meat Council of Australia president Kate Joseph said the council supported the visual tag system for sheep with mob-based traceability. SCA support voluntary, not mandatory RFID tagging, “at this point”. But Ms Joseph believed producers needed to tag every sheep, agents should not accept untagged animals for sale and state agencies must do better monitoring to make the current system work.

Source: farmonline.com.au

DALTON ID ACQUIRE DROVERS AY-ONE AND ANNOUNCING NEW SUPPLY ARRANGEMENTS IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA– JUNE 2011 – DALTON ID announced today their Acquisition of 100% of the shareholding of DROVERS Ay-One Pty Ltd, one of the key suppliers of ID products to the Australian Livestock industry. DROVERS AY ONE Pty. Ltd. was established in 1986 and by 1995 was the major supplier of tail tags to Australian Cattle Producers. Drovers’ product range has grown over the years to include a wide range of livestock ID products including NLIS tags for cattle and sheep, management and tail tags. The business also incorporates one of Australia few remaining Bronze foundries for freeze and fire brand production. “Renowned for their excellent customer service and product support we believe DROVERS experienced team combined with DALTON products and production processes will produce a winning combination.” Said Daniel Brierley, Global Sales Director for Dalton ID and former Managing Director of Dalton Australia. Both Jim Norris and Kate Murphy, the current proprietors, will remain with the business as Technical and General Manager respectively. “DROVERS produce Australia’s only “EZ Read” NLIS EID cattle tag with a flag and Dalton’s Global buying power will now enable us to offer the very lowest prices to our customers” said Jim Norris. Daltontags were previously distributed by Gallagher Australia. DALTON ID and GALLAGHER AUSTRALIA announced in February that their distribution arrangement in the Australian and New Zealand markets would be ending. “We’re delighted to be producing Dalton’s full range of tags” said Kate Murphy. “Gallagher Australia has been a great help and have worked closely with our team to ensure a smooth transfer of operational functions. Stock and production facilities are now in place in our newly refurbished Printing and Distribution centre. Our product range still includes a wide variety of NLIS tags, Management tags and the new No Snag tag range, light weight sheep EID and tissue sampling DNA tags”. Producers requiring free samples, pricing or further information on DALTON DROVERS products should ask their local merchant or contact the Dalton/Drover sales team 1300 923 181 (email sales@daltonid.com.au) or visit www.tags4u.com.au