Compulsory EID Cattle Tagging – YES OR NO?

[Alex-w]

In December 2017, the Animal identification and Movements of Livestock Team which is part of DEFRA, held consultations with all existing Animal ID Tag companies to discuss the standards that should be out in place for the compulsory roll out of EID tagging for cattle in the UK. This has been done without any consultation of our farmers.

Having seen the increased costs and minimal efficiency gains that came from making all sheep tags compulsory EID, surely our farmers should have a say on this issue before wasting millions on legislation and farmers are forced to see increases of over 200% in the cost of animal tagging and associated equipment. Have your say now.

 

[The Son]

Yes please, would save me a lot of money adding eid tags to cattle as they arrive. Why on earth they put them in sheep not cattle is beyond me.

 

[Dog&stick]

Yes, most livestock farms have readers for sheep, so got to be good when tb testing cattle, I'd insist that my tag supplier, supplied free Eid tag, if lost.

 

[exmoor dave]

In December 2017, the Animal identification and Movements of Livestock Team which is part of DEFRA, held consultations with all existing Animal ID Tag companies to discuss the standards that should be out in place for the compulsory roll out of EID tagging for cattle in the UK. This has been done without any consultation of our farmers.

Having seen the increased costs and minimal efficiency gains that came from making all sheep tags compulsory EID, surely our farmers should have a say on this issue before wasting millions on legislation and farmers are forced to see increases of over 200% in the cost of animal tagging and associated equipment. Have your say now.

http://agrismart.co.uk/compulsory-eid-cattle-tagging-yes-or-no/

Planning to change to EID tags for cattle as soon as the current run is used up, as we weigh cattle reasonable regular it would speed the job up.

Also a few vet practices are starting to get handheld puters for tb testing, I can see in a few years there being more uptake so potentially tb testing could be speed up abit.

But I'm not really sure EID in cattle should be forced on the industry because in most cases it won't bring much benefit above what we have now.


There area couple points in your post I dispute,

"Minimal efficiency gains" from sheep EID, maybe at industry level, but those who have embraced the technology and associated kit have seen big gains (us included).

200% cost increase in tags and equipment, well the current legislation doesn't require anyone to actually buy a reader, as for tags, going with shearwell prices,
Current non-eid, large primary &small secondary = £2.04
Large primary & EID secondary = £3.21

That is not a 200% increase

 

[sidjon]

Planning to change to EID tags for cattle as soon as the current run is used up, as we weigh cattle reasonable regular it would speed the job up.

Also a few vet practices are starting to get handheld puters for tb testing, I can see in a few years there being more uptake so potentially tb testing could be speed up abit.

But I'm not really sure EID in cattle should be forced on the industry because in most cases it won't bring much benefit above what we have now.


There area couple points in your post I dispute,

"Minimal efficiency gains" from sheep EID, maybe at industry level, but those who have embraced the technology and associated kit have seen big gains (us included).

200% cost increase in tags and equipment, well the current legislation doesn't require anyone to actually buy a reader, as for tags, going with shearwell prices,
Current non-eid, large primary &small secondary = £2.04
Large primary & EID secondary = £3.21

That is not a 200% increase

Problem is eid tag replacements aren't free and tag retention of eid tags seems poorer than normal tags , and like you next batch will likely to be eid, but unlike to speed up tb testing as our vets don't like spending money and don't like technology

 

[Agrivator]

What information will the electronic tag contain?
It will contain a herd number plus an individual animal number - possibly without a check digit for logistical reasons.
But how can it contain any other information - birth date, dam, sire, etc.

But if it can be made to work, it would be of enormous benefit when selling store cattle at auction.

And have they managed to resolve the problem of sheep and cattle having identical numbers?

 

[M-J-G]

It won't be long until its compulsory anyway, were lagging behind a lot of the world on cattle ID.

 

[Agrivator]

It won't be long until its compulsory anyway, were lagging behind a lot of the world on cattle ID.

In what way are we lagging behind?

 

[James]

I'd say it's a good idea. At least with our weigher for the cattle it's compatible with electronic id so I'd still need the wand thingy

 

[gone up the hill]

Absolute waste of money for slaughter sheep because as soon as their head is cut off in the slaughter plant they can only batch trace the meat and even before that quite often in each batch of sheep sent they cant read the tag electronically anyway in 2/3 sheep and can only give you the flock number thru manual reading for them.

Will be an absolute waste of money for cattle as well for the above reason.

I appreciate that some farmers make good use of them for breeding stock and that is fine but this doesn't mean that another cost should be forced onto the entire industry just to benefit tag makers.

Ref putting sire details etc on them when selling store, the drive is to do away with paper passports ( which work very well ), the info then will only be online for things like number of movements/ sire details, all fine being online but what happens when the market makes a mistake and the purchaser cant check the passport before they leave the market but will only be able to check a few days later that the info given at point of sale is correct when the animal has been updated onto their own holding a few days later??

All very well the government/ AHDB etc saying we should cut costs but then they go and support increased costs for things like EID tags that wont benefit most cattle farmers.

 

[exmoor dave]

Problem is eid tag replacements aren't free and tag retention of eid tags seems poorer than normal tags , and like you next batch will likely to be eid, but unlike to speed up tb testing as our vets don't like spending money and don't like technology

Are you trying to say that you can't see Martin F shooting from the hip zapping cattle tags with a handheld puter

 

[S J H]

This came up in an nfu meeting the other night, I'm against it, because I think there's a lot of farms without readers. Fair enough on here there's plenty with them and that are for it, but theyll be plenty that don't have this facility.

Secondly, we started using eid at home, but the eid tags were too heavy for young calves, so they 'tracked' through the ear. So I can the retention takes being worse than they are now, which is already a problem with standard tags. Also with this, how will the data be transferred to the new tag without the use of a more detailed reader.

If all medical records were going to be transferred on, with tb and movement details then I'd be all for it, but i can't see that happening, and I wouldn't want all that information in an ear tag, I'd rather it be in a chip or something similar.

I was told that this had been discussed for the past 10 or so years, so they couldn't see it happening anytime soon.

 

[tinsheet]

This came up in an nfu meeting the other night, I'm against it, because I think there's a lot of farms without readers. Fair enough on here there's plenty with them and that are for it, but theyll be plenty that don't have this facility.

Secondly, we started using eid at home, but the eid tags were too heavy for young calves, so they 'tracked' through the ear. So I can the retention takes being worse than they are now, which is already a problem with standard tags. Also with this, how will the data be transferred to the new tag without the use of a more detailed reader.

If all medical records were going to be transferred on, with tb and movement details then I'd be all for it, but i can't see that happening, and I wouldn't want all that information in an ear tag, I'd rather it be in a chip or something similar.

I was told that this had been discussed for the past 10 or so years, so they couldn't see it happening anytime soon.

Which brand of tags?

 

[sidjon]

Are you trying to say that you can't see Martin F shooting from the hip zapping cattle tags with a handheld puter

He has enough problems with pen and paper , testing today and was telling him they need a tablet to make their paper work easier, only problem is he's thinking about a stone tablet
Did nextdoor sell and did you purchase it

 

[multi power]

All cattle should have EID
All TB testers should have a reader
But the tag shouldn't be in the ear, they should be in a bolus

 

[gone up the hill]

All cattle should have EID
All TB testers should have a reader
But the tag shouldn't be in the ear, they should be in a bolus

Bolus can move around.

 

[sidjon]

All cattle should have EID
All TB testers should have a reader
But the tag shouldn't be in the ear, they should be in a bolus

NO WAY....... have been driven to drink with bloody boluses when we used them.

 

[multi power]

NO WAY....... have been driven to drink with bloody boluses when we used them.

What was the problems?

 

[Henarar]

no use to me so NO

 

[multi power]

Bolus can move around.

They might do, but I'd say it would put an end to crooks swapping tags