NFUS says EID PILOT HIGHLIGHTS FLAWS IN EUROPEAN REGULATION

Initial findings of Scottish research into the implementation of controversial European rules on the Electronic Identification (EID) of sheep have served to highlight the flaws in such an unpopular piece of legislation, according to NFU Scotland.

The pilot looks at implementation of Regulation 21/2004, due to come into force at the end of this year, which will make it obligatory for all Scottish sheep keepers to electronically tag most sheep born after 31 December 2009 and keep a record of animals’ individual identities every time they move.

Phase one of the pilot, funded by the Scottish Government and co-ordinated by the Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society (SAOS) found that the technology currently available to sheep producers delivers 96 percent accuracy. At the end of phase one, the 209 farmers involved in the trial remained concerned over the cost and practicalities of complying with the regulation and concluded that for those working with large numbers of animals the proposals are impracticable.

Farmer involvement with the pilot will become increasingly important as it moves into phase two, which will look at crucial areas such as the introduction of electronic scanning into markets and abattoirs and the importance of a national central database to log sheep movements.

NFU Scotland President, Jim McLaren said:

“The Scottish pilot looking at implementing this poor piece of European legislation at farm level is hugely important in the information it will provide even though the evidence to date has largely served to highlight the flaws that we already knew were inherent in such a system.

“To a lay person, a 96 percent accuracy rate may appear to be acceptable but it is the four percent failure rate that calls the whole European requirement into question.

“Given that those farmers involved in the trial are committed to making EID work, it is highly unlikely that such a level of accuracy would be repeated when rolled out across all of Scotland’s seven million sheep. In Scotland, sheep traditionally move from farm to farm, from farm to market and from farm to abattoir. If there is a high level of inaccuracy, then it quickly unwinds the credibility of introducing such a system in the first place.

“When you add in that the hundreds of farmers currently participating in the pilot continue to harbour concerns about practicality and cost, particularly for the larger flock sizes seen in Scotland, then there are some massive challenges to rolling out this regulation from the start of next year.

“In terms of implementation, phase two of the pilot is hugely important because it will shed light on the role of markets and abattoirs in movement recording, as well as looking at the role of a central database in Scotland.

“Compliance with the regulation will saddle sheep farmers with additional costs in terms of tags, equipment and labour and we continue to work with Scottish Government and other stakeholders to minimise the worst of what is a bad piece of legislation.”