PRODUCERS selling electronically tagged lambs to two Victorian processors can now receive weight and grade details on individual animals.
Victorian Department of Primary Industries sheep officer Melissa Neal, who is assisting with the National Livestock Identification System, said Gathercole at Tatura and the Frewstal at Stawell were operating electronic reading systems on their kill chains.
She said she expected other processors would invest in electronic reading systems soon.
The benefits of NLIS and electronic tagging of sheep and lambs were discussed at a field day of the Nullawil Prime Lamb Group in the Mallee last week.
Group facilitator Garry Armstrong said electronic tagging could already provide immense management benefits to lamb producers.
Besides helping appease EU authorities on the need for traceability, Mr Armstrong said the additional cost of electronic tags could soon be recouped through better management decisions.
The Government-subsidised electronic tags costing 90 cents were only 60-65 cents dearer than the visual tags.
Mr Armstrong said a $4000 walk-over-weighing system would not only help monitor the growth and weight of prime lambs, but could also help in determining which lambs belonged to which mothers.
At the Nullawil field day last week the group tested a walk-over-weighing system on Darren Barker's property where lambs grazing barley crops were regularly weighed or monitored every time they used a drinking trough.
Other members of the Nullawil group shared an automatic three-way $15,000 Prattley drafting race, where lambs or sheep were drafted and recorded according to their weights.
Mr Armstrong said electronic tagging would provide a competitive edge to progressive lamb producers wishing to know which were their best performing rams and ewes.
Mr Armstrong compared the benefits of a $20,000 investment in some sheep equipment to a graingrower who thought nothing of spending $500,000 on a piece of machinery.
