Europe’s concession on electronic ID tags for older sheep welcomed

Animals born before January 1, 2010 will not now require EID for movement until after December 31, 2014.

The original deadline was the end of this month. The concession covers an estimated eight million UK sheep.

Agriculture Minister Jim Paice said: “In this economic climate it is not affordable or practical to electronically tag the millions of sheep born before electronic sheep identification was introduced. I have been pressing Europe hard to defer the individual movement reporting requirement for these older sheep.

“I am pleased they have listened. Pre-2010 sheep can retain their conventional tags, and keepers will be able to continue to record and report their movements as a batch.”

The UK request was agreed at a meeting of the EU’s Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health on December 6.

Hans Pörksen, chairman of the north east livestock board of the NFU, said: “Most people have been hanging on until they had to comply so it is a concession well worth having and not too late.”

Alistair Mackintosh, NFU livestock board chairman, said: “This has been a burning issue for the UK’s sheep farmers so we are delighted to secure this exten-sion.

“It will save a huge amount of money, time and unnecessary bureaucracy, and also give farmers some breathing space to comply.

“However, there are still a number of issues for many farmers surrounding EID and the potential to fall foul of cross-compliance. We will continue to work with Defra and in Brussels to a more common sense approach.”