THE European Union's verdict on the operation of Australia's sheep identification system could send shockwaves through the industry.
While some are adamant that Australia's systems for tracking livestock are fine, others think our current system for monitoring the movement of sheep and goats will fail dismally in a disease emergency.
Whichever camp you are in, there is one key issue the industry needs to get its head around, and quickly.
That is the implementation of a National Livestock Identification system for sheep and goats that is truly national.
The national Sheepcatcher tracking exercise in 2007 is believed to have found that the current system would not work in a disease emergency.
I say "believed", because the full report has never been made publicly available.
While there is general acceptance that changes to the NLIS for sheep and goats are needed, there is confusion about the direction the system should take.
That was supposed to have been rectified with the release of a long-awaited consultant's report on options for the NLIS for sheep and goats.
But that report, commissioned by Animal Health Australia, was released to a select few in industry late last week, and hasn't made any recommendation on the course of action the industry should take.
Instead, it outlined the options that could be considered.
The earliest we can expect any changes to the NLIS is later this year, once the consultant's report is considered and voted on by various stakeholders.
In reality, how can we possibly convince the EU our tracking system is effective? How can we ensure that something terrible, like a foot-and-mouth outbreak involving sheep, can be quickly contained?
NSW has agreed to some enhancements to the NLIS rules, promoted by the Sheepmeat Council of Australia especially, which require producers to notify the NLIS database when they are receiving sheep or goats directly from another property that has a different property identification code.
To fall in with what the Sheepmeat Council of Australia wants, producers will need to make a conscious effort to comply.
Sheep and goat producers will be required to either open an NLIS database account and register movement details electronically, or obtain a paper form from the NLIS database at $14 each, and then return it to be processed.
In reality, how feasible is this and how will the industry check it is happening? Will there be penalties if producers don't comply? And what good is it if not all states are doing the same thing?
Victoria has not yet agreed to go down this track, so the state's producers are not required to do this.
That's all very well, but what happens if you have properties in both NSW and Victoria?
Or, as happened at the Australian Sheep and Wool Show in Bendigo, you bring your sheep in from another state?
That is perhaps where the ludicrousness of having a national system implemented on a state-by-state basis really shows up, pardon the pun.
If I bring my prize sheep from my stud in NSW to a Victorian show, I am not required to record they have arrived at a new PIC.
But when I take those sheep home, I am required to say they have arrived back from Victoria. So those sheep, which have not officially left my NSW property because I was not required to say that they had, are recorded as coming home when they officially hadn't left.
Confusing? Completely.
Victoria received a detailed report on options for enhancing the NLIS for sheep and goats from the respected PricewaterhouseCoopers early this year, which made telling comments about the likelihood of a system based on visual tags ever being successful.
For good reason, Victorian authorities have decided to wait until the consultant's report, commissioned by Animal Health Australia, on the strengths and weaknesses of the current NLIS for sheep and goats, is released and the report on the EU's recent audit is finalised, before they decide which way to go.
Parts of the industry, however, have decided to jump the gun and are trying to convince themselves and others that a visual tag and a paper-based system to track the movement of sheep and goats is "good enough".
We need a state-of-the-art tracking system to protect hard-won markets, not something which is just easy for the producers to use. How quickly we have forgotten the lessons of the UK foot and mouth disease outbreak in 2001.
To have a system that is simply decorating sheep and goats with pieces of plastic is placing not only our sheep and goat industries at risk, but also Australia's beef, dairy and pork industries.
Sure, it might come at a cost, but balance that against the costs of losing key markets and any outlay is relatively minimal.
Sadly, the release of the long-awaited report has brought the industry no closer to an answer.
