Individual movement recording and electronic identification (EID) in sheep (EC Regulation 21/2004) was introduced on 1 January 2010.
All lambs this year need to be tagged in accordance with the regulation and last year’s tags cannot be used. Keepers who tag their sheep without the correct identification are risking deductions to their SFP as this is a cross compliance breach, and can lead to enforcement action by Local Authorities trading standards inspectors.
NFU Policy
The NFU is opposed to the mandatory introduction of individual movement recording and EID in sheep. We continue to lobby both domestically, through our own minister, and through the EU with the ultimate aim of having this regulation reviewed and in the short term we believe there are a number of concessions that need to be achieved to limit the impact of the regulation on producers. We are also extremely concerned about the cross compliance implications on producers and are trying to make sure that the problems with tags and readers in terms of accuracy is recognised by the EU Commission.
Take part in our tag survey
We are running this survey to see how our members are dealing with the new tagging requirements. We want to know how much these tags are costing you, which type of tag you find the best and any welfare issues associated with them.
The results will help us identify issues for our discussions with tag manufacturers and Defra as well as giving us background information for future lobbying and enable us to highlight issues to the wider membership.
The NFU would greatly appreciate your input. The more responses we receive, the more accurate our results will be. Once the results are collated they will be published in the Livestock area of NFUonline.
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