Mitchell goat producer Bruce Foott is one of a number of small livestock owners in Queensland recognising the importance and inevitability of electronic tagging for their animals.
He says the news that the federal and state governments have agreed to develop a nationally mandated sheep and goat electronic identification system will help give his industry more credibility.
Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt announced last week that a meeting between himself and all state and territory Agriculture Ministers had resulted in an extremely productive discussion about what could be done to ramp up national biosecurity measures together.
"Sheep traceability is an important part of that," he said.
"We've got a system across the country for cattle, but we haven't got it in place for sheep at the moment - a couple of the states have been resisting that up until now.
"It's something that sheep producers have been calling for, for a long period of time, because it's another really important biosecurity step.
"I was really pleased that we've basically reached agreement that we are going to roll this out nationwide."
Victoria is the only state so far mandated for electronic tagging of sheep.
Mr Watt said it still had to be worked out how such a scheme would be paid for and how it would be rolled out.
"But for the first time, we've been able to get agreement between all state and territory governments and the federal government that this is something we should do," he said.
Queensland Agricultural Minister Mark Furner said the state supported a nationally consistent approach to traceability and continued to work within the national system to progress proposed enhancements for sheep and goat traceability.
"In Queensland, NLIS-approved tags and devices provide identification for livestock," he said. "Approved devices include ear tags, internal devices (electronic), slap brands (for pigs) and tattoos."
Taking tags seriously
Mr Foott said all goat owners he'd spoken to since the announcement agreed it was high time the goat industry was taken more seriously, and tags would help with that.
"People who go into goats initially, don't tend to look after them - they think goats are bulletproof," he said. "If they take the time to put tags in their animals, they might look after them more. It's a perception thing."
The Foott family's property Banda Park is part of a Collaborative Area Management cluster fencing scheme, which he said would be advantageous in a national management plan.
"We had to come up with a biosecurity plan when we entered the management agreement, and these tags will help with that," Mr Foott said.
He thought pushback would most likely come from dealers, who could conceivably buy 1000 nannies from 10 different properties, with no current way of tracing where they'd come from.
Other resistance could be from people seeing it as another job in a busy program, especially those who only send goats to meatworks.
"It's why some people went into goats in the first place, the ease of management," Bruce's son, Charleville agent Gus Foott said. "Goats are still very much a rangeland industry, especially in NSW, where probably 90 per cent come in untagged."
Mr Foott senior speculated that the cost - $2 electronic versus 40c - might deter some, but in his opinion, a $2 tag on a $400 goat wasn't a huge cost impost.
He moved from a Merino sheep operation to goats and Brahman cattle in 1995 and now runs 5000 Boer nannies and 1000 Dorper ewes.
"We've got to have electronic tags to sell on AuctionsPlus and that's mostly what we do," he said.
"However, I am aware that some producers bypass AuctionsPlus because they don't want to tag.
"It's another job to do, and goats bounce around a bit."
Mr Foott said he knew NVDs worked, relaying an experience he had selling Boer goats into Asia, out of Sydney, when he was rung by an Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service officer, saying one of his animals had been found outside the Malaysian capital city Kuala Lumpur.
"I said, I knew it jumped fences a lot but I didn't think it was that bad - he didn't see the funny side."
Nutrien wool manager Bob Tully said eIDs were going to be an important fact of life.
"Cost might be an issue," he said. "It's a more feasible cost down south where they get more dollars per head, whereas in Queensland they rely on numbers to get the income."
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