THE multi-tagging of sheep and lambs as part of the National Livestock Identification System has been deferred and is likely to be abandoned.
Known as transaction tagging, whereby sheep bought by restockers and lot feeders would have to be retagged each time they were sold, was scheduled for July 1 as part of the on-going development of the NLIS for sheep and goats.
But this week NLIS management committee chairman Ian Feldtmann said transaction tagging would be deferred.
Mr Feldtmann wouldn't elaborate as to the reasons, though he said state governments had the ultimate control of animal-health issues relating to livestock identification.
He said a recent meeting of the respective ministers failed to agree on a number of matters relating to transaction tagging.
In the meantime Victoria is to push ahead with its own system for recording mob-based movements of sheep and lambs from July 1.
Victoria will be the first state to do so, though all other states have agreed to the system but have yet to set an implementation dates
Agriculture Minister Joe Helper said the mandatory transaction tagging, along with other enhancements for traceability, would be deferred for further national consideration.
Mr Helper said lamb finishers were one sector of the sheepmeat supply chain who didn't want to tag every lamb they bought.
"To address this issue, (the) Victorian Sheep Identification Advisory Committee has endorsed the development of a national business plan to address the remaining gaps in the current system and to investigate the feasibility of introducing a system based on electronic tags," Mr Helper said.
Department of Primary Industries' animal standards manager Tony Britt said Victorian producers selling non-vendor bred lines of sheep would still have the option of recording the Property Identification Code attached by previous owners on the accompanying National Vendor Declaration form.
Dr Britt said mob-based movement recording would operate similar to that of cattle except without individual ID.
He said potential buyers of sheep would be required to register their PICs prior to a sale.
Saleyard operators would then be responsible for forwarding details of both the vendor's and buyer's PICs, along with numbers of sheep bought or sold, to the NLIS sheep database.
Dr Britt acknowledged saleyard operators might charge a fee, but said that had to be weighed against the cost of any breakdown in the traceability of any major exotic disease such as foot and mouth.
