THE push to introduce electronic sheep tagging is creating a rift within the industry.
The Victorian Government and Victorian saleyards operators are supportive of the introduction of electronic tagging.
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However, the Sheepmeat Council of Australia and the national saleyards body maintain the current paper-based sheep identification system is adequate.
Victorian Agriculture Minister Joe Helper told saleyards operators at the Livestock Saleyards Association of Victoria's annual conference in Swan Hill last week that he supported electronic eartags.
"When it comes to electronic tags for sheep you have to stack up the alternatives. The alternative to electronic tags is the current paper-based system and that has a number of faults (as) pointed out by PriceWaterhouseCoopers in early 2010," Mr Helper said.
"Secondly the Centre for International Economics' report (which has not been made public) outlines faults too."
The Department of Primary Industries animal standards manager Tony Britt said it would be "silly to move ahead without industry support".
"The risk has been identified in the two reports with the current system," Mr Britt said at the conference.
"The current system is far from meeting the national performance standards."
The SCA held a general meeting in Perth last week, where PWC and CIE reports were discussed.
Sheepmeat Council of Australia president Kate Joseph said: "The report clearly identified that in the short-term there are significant impediments to any widespread use of radio frequency identification devices, as well as the current high implementation and ongoing costs of the scheme".
The Australian Livestock Markets Association - formed last month to replace the Saleyards of Australia - is also opposed to going down the route of electronic tagging.
The LSAV chief executive Mark McDonald said the association passed a motion at their AGM to "generally support the introduction of RFID".
