Further reform of sheep EID regulations is desperately needed to help farmers already struggling to keep on top of inappropriate requirements - that was the view of UK and Ireland farming union officeholders this week.
The meeting was held to work out a strategy going forward following the recent positive news of a delay to the individual recording of the historic flock along with the disappointing announcement of zero tolerance for sheep EID moves in Wales.
High on the agenda were the problems and costs farmers are experiencing to try to ensure accurate individual movement information was recorded and avoid fines under cross compliance. The meeting also discussed the issues being faced with technology, lost tags and confusion around recording requirements.
NFU Cymru President, Ed Bailey said, “It’s clear that through our combined lobbying efforts, we have secured much needed flexibility within the regulation. The extension of the implementation dates along with the flexibilities around tagging choice and the use of central point recording centres have saved the industry millions of pounds. However, the fight is not yet over and it was clear to everyone that without a workable tolerance for movements, our farmers will continue to shoulder an unacceptably onerous regulatory burden.
“From the combined discussions we have held with the Commission and our respective Governments, it is clear that the Commission officials need to recognise that without tolerances farmers run the risk of cross compliance breaches through no fault of their own. Member States need the confidence to provide a workable system without the fear of infraction proceedings.
“We will continue to build an evidence base and support in Europe to demonstrate the need for a tangible change to the regulation to introduce a sense of proportionality while safeguarding traceability and our ability to control the spread of disease in our national flocks.”
- Janet Graham - 11/02/2012
It would seem that the Union has abandoned common sense and succumbed to the meme (mind virus) that tracing sheep is in some way important. It is not.
We should not simply be campaigning against the zero tolerance of mistakes in individual recording. We should not be campaigning against EID, or double tagging or individual numbers on tags. We should show some intelligence and be campaigning against ANY tagging and recording of sheep movements. We should not pretend that tracing sheep will affect our ‘ability to control the spread of disease in our national flocks’. It will not. We should not pretend that there is any merit whatsoever in tracing sheep.
The legislation regarding the traceability of sheep has been implemented bit by bit with the result that the Union now accepts, and even promotes, the very legal requirements that a few years ago it fought against.
Tracing the movements of millions of sheep, with the best will in the world (and there is none of that), is not even achievable. The number of errors in the resulting enormous database generated will make a mockery of the attempt. In addition, based on claims reported by its members, NFU Mutual has estimated more than 67,000 sheep were stolen in the UK during 2011. Did the thieves fill in movement licences?
I find it hard to believe that any sheep farmer in the country considers tracing sheep as anything but a complete and utter waste of time and money.
There was life before sheep tags!