Call for all states to provide discounted sheep eID tags

That's the message from multiple industry stakeholders.

Specific tag incentive schemes have already been offered in Western Australia, Tasmania and South Australia.

However NSW has no tag rebates on offer and in Queensland producers will be able to access a 50 per cent rebate up to $1600 per property identification code, covering both tags and infrastructure, although applications aren't yet open.

In Western Australia, the tag incentive payment scheme opened in March 2023 and has been extended into this year, providing a $0.75 subsidy for year-of birth NLIS eID tags.

Since it began more than 2.2 million eID tags have been sold through the scheme, with a spokewsoman for the state's Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development saying the government was pleased with the uptake.

A spokeswoman from Department of Primary Industries and Regions South Australia said as of March 15, rebates had been approved totalling for more than 496,000 tags, representing around 50pc of eligible year of birth eID tag purchased in 2023 in the state.

"The South Australian government is currently rolling out one of the most generous electronic identification tag support programs in the nation for sheep and farmed goats - with a 50 per cent subsidy capped at 95c per tag which we see as a very positive outcome," she said.

"Early adopters of eID will benefit from being able to access discounted tags for stock being kept beyond 1 January 2027, when it will be mandatory for them to be eID tagged before leaving their property of birth.

"PIRSA is continuing to encourage producers to submit rebate applications before applications close on 30 April."

Independent traceability consultant Beth Green said states offering discounted tags had reported quicker uptake among producers.

"They're making really good use of the opportunity and what it is doing is what it was planned to do, which is get more sheep tagged faster rather than everyone waiting until January 2025 to try to all order tags at once," she said.

"There will be a significant percentage of sheep and goats around the country already identified with eID by 2025 so what that will do is remove the need for those sheep to be retagged later on, which is better for animal handling and better for occupational health and safety in the yards as well.

"I would hope that other states that haven't offered that have a look at that and use it as a way to see that the attitude of industry is perhaps not as negative as they have been led to believe.

"I've talked to suppliers and there is no talk that there will be an issue with supply.

"The change doesn't mean that you need to have the eIDs on from January, it just means from January 1 you need to have enough on hand for that year's drop.

"It's not going to be a mad rush in January... but the incentive schemes have also taken the pressure off that and they've gotten people used to what they need to do before they need to do it so they're more comfortable with it."

NSW Farmers president Xavier Martin said sheep producers were concerned about variation in the system on a state-by-state basis.

"They're no fan of mandates, haven't met someone yet who thinks mandates are a good idea," he said.

"They say, 'who cares about a mandate, it won't work if there's different rules and systems in different states and territories."

Mr Martin said until there was funding to help cover the costs of the tags, uptake would remain low.

"I can see a whole lot of producers who are waiting for these drivers of the mandate to get the chequebook out and start paying for the mandate," he said.

"What I'm seeing is just a scattering of people who have gone ahead and got some of the hardware and bought some of the tags and they're reporting back a pretty ordinary experience.

"That's why NSW Farmers' policy is to be technology agnostic because there's enough issues with some of these low frequency eIDs and that's why a lot of our members are very interested in UHF eIDs."

AgForce sheep, wool and goats president Stephen Tully said AgForce believed a tag co-investment was the best way to handle the eID rollout.

"The government rebate of $1600 on a one-off basis is nothing... that's not going to get anyone putting tags in ears 12 months before they need to," he said.

"The way that interests rates and prices are, things are tight and if you can put off a payment, you'll put off a payment and one of those things is you'll put off your eID.

"A tag is a tag until it's in an ear, until then it's just a piece of plastic.

"The readers and everything else is a commercial decision producers can make... we don't need any subsidies for readers, what we need is tags in ears."

In Tasmania, applications for tag grants won't open until July but a Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania spokeswoman said the department was "actively engaging with all elements of the sheep & goat industry supply chains to determine the most efficient and cost-effective way to transition to eID".

"The percentage of the state's sheep flock and goat herd with eID tags is not yet known as tagging is not yet mandatory, and until recently the Tasmanian Agricultural Properties Database systems did not differentiate between electronic and visual tags," she said.