State farming organisations have agreed to work together to ensure a nationally consistent electronic identification system in sheep and goats.
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But they will be lobbying the state and federal governments, which last year mandated the move away from the current mob-based identification, to step up their financial assistance to producers.
The federal government has committed $20m over three years and at this stage the states are in the dark about how this will be divided up.
To date the SA and WA governments are the only ones that have put money on the table for tag rebates and other eID infrastructure despite the start date of January 1, 2025, rapidly approaching.
Representatives from SFOs across the country gathered for a meeting in Adelaide yesterday.
NSW Farmers president Xavier Martin said they had been waiting for agriculture ministers to come up with a united plan, but when it was clear that each state was following a different path they decided to convene the meeting in conjunction with Livestock SA.
He said there was a "level of frustration" about how governments were handling things.
"We are going to make sure that the overarching platform is such that it works for all producers across the nation because we are not confident that anyone else will," he said.
"Ministers think they can wave their hands and there will be a tag in every sheep's ear, we need a common sense approach."
Mr Martin said with such a big reform it was key that the state farming groups worked together to achieve the best outcomes for its members.
NSW Farmers, Livestock SA, Victorian Farmers Federation, AgForce Queensland, Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association, WA Farmers and the Pastoralists and Graziers Association of WA agreed on four key points which have been communicated to the state's agriculture ministers.
These are state and federal governments needing to invest increased funding to financially assist producers to transition to individual electronic identification to meet state government implementation requirements, continued efforts by industry and government will be needed to reduce producer costs associated with electronic identification infrastructure and devices and ensuring the National Livestock Identification System database will have the required capability and capacity to handle increased data prior to states commencing mandatory electronic identification.
The meeting attendees also agreed to endorse the Goat Industry Council of Australia's recommendations on traceability.
Mr Martin says the NSW government must step up and announce a funding package for its state's farmers.
"There were some wide ranging suggestions from the previous government and there is some understanding from the new government who have been in government for over 100 days on the topic but it is leaving producers scratching their heads since it was the government who mandated it," he said.
"It is an enormous amount of money for animals that have collapsed in value, both meat and wool and there is already talk that producers will not go along with it."
Livestock SA president Joe Keynes says it was really beneficial to meet and understand the points of difference and that each state was at a different point in their eID journey but all wanted to get to the same point.
"In SA we have done reasonably well securing funding to ensure the cost of tags is down to a reasonable level, we have got it down to below $1 a tag which is a great achievement but we will keep asking for more money," he said.
Mr Keynes said education would also be really important so producers knew what their requirements would be.
AgForce sheep, wool and goats board president Stephen Tully said the meeting was an extremely positive discussion which should have occurred months earlier.
"It has been mandated so we have got to do it and farmers will see benefits but so will government, the federal government have only put in $20 million over three years when it is costing $300m over three years, that hardly seems enough," he said.
He wants the Qld govt to commit to similar tag rebates that SA and WA have announced in recent months to encourage producers to put eID tags in lambs as soon as possible.
"Putting tags in lambs is easy but putting tags in adult sheep can cause massive problems, it will be all about how we work towards the end date," he said.
VFF livestock president Scott Young believes eID is the next big step forward for the sheep industry and is pleased the states are backing national harmonisation.
"It is not a very big change in terms of putting a tag in but it is a big change in expense with eID but there will be some big benefits that farmers will see straight away," he said.
"Vic farmers are already seeing these but there will be some good opportunities once everyone is on board in traceability and biosecurity.
"Once there is a tag in every animal's ear we can start working with processors on how they use it for their markets."
The state farming organisations will meet again in August to progress the issues further.
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