WITH the clock now ticking inexorably towards the implementation of electronic identification of sheep, NFU Scotland have renewed their appeal for the government to fund the cost of a central database to collect all the information.
There is now less than two months to go before the EU inspired legislation comes into being but the union is still seeking fundamental changes to the proposed legislation.
Speaking in Perth this week, the NFU chief, Jim McLaren, said if there was
a central database, then the need for all sheep farmers to have their own scanning equipment would vanish. The union would like to see the database linked up to the so-called Critical Control Points at markets and abattoirs. This, he claimed, would eliminate the need for individual producers to invest in their own monitoring equipment.
Nigel Miller, the union's vice-president, reckoned it would only cost £1 to £2 million for a central control system. He said there could be major benefits if it was properly implemented.
It is not just the lack of a central information collecting base that is concerning the union. It fears the government may introduce a requirement for all sheep heading to slaughter to be tagged.
Currently there is the option of a derogation from Europe for sheep that have never left the farm on which they were born but NFUS fears the government will go beyond this.
Miller said the only way he thought the government could justify this gold plating of legislation was if they footed the bill and if they used the information gleaned from the abattoir to pass back to producers information on the quality of the carcase so that they could improve their breeding policies.
The government support could come, he argued, through Land Managers Options, which already exist as part of the main support funding scheme, the Scottish Rural Development Programme. An amendment of this support could take in the costs of the additional ear tagging, he argued.
