Inverell Northern NSW farmer and ABA Chairman Brad Bellinger writes:
The decision by English and Irish Governments to protest against moves by the European Union (EU) to mandate electronic ear tagging for livestock, shows a vote of no confidence in the Scheme.
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“BRUSSELS (Reuters) - British and Irish lawmakers in the European Parliament launched a campaign on Tuesday against a rule that would make electronic tags for millions of sheep and goats across the EU compulsory from next year.
The MEPs complain that the tagging scheme will be very expensive and difficult to implement, particularly in hillside areas. Their campaign against compulsory tagging is also supported by French sheep farmers, industry sources say.”
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These two governments recognise the huge impost costs on the production section that NLIS imposes.
Clearly this huge cost is one which Australian Governments both Federal and State, either do not understand, or do not care about and conveniently forget that the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) has not sold one more kilogram of beef.
Australia’s trade negotiators at the Doha Round of the WTO have been relentlessly and naively critical of the level of subsidies that the USA and European farmers receive.
Now these countries must look on in amazement at why Australian Governments are prepared to burden their farmers with even higher regulatory production costs such as NLIS, further eroding their profitability.
Rather than NLIS giving us a marketing advantage in the world beef trade it is actually reducing our biosecurity and weakening our competitive edge, as our competitors abandon this ridiculous scheme.
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Tags: ABA, Brad Bellinger, EU, Livestock ID, NLIS
Absolutely mad tagging sheep and goats.
Ireland is sick to death of being dictated to by the EU. It voted overwhelmingly against the Lisbon Treaty but the EU doesn’t want to recognize the vote.
Irish could save Europe from EU Tyranny
I bet our cattle NLIS data base is way out of whack.
WHEN CAN WE THROW THE NLIS SYSTEM OUT?
We replace at least 20% of NLIS tags every time we sell cattle as the original tags have fallen out,this is an extra cost we have to bare.
If there is a problem with us transferring cattle between our property’s & some tags are on the wrong place they just say these cattle have lost their traceability. I am sure this is happening all over Australia.
So what are we proving with NLIS Tags except that someone is making an enormous profit out of the farmers & we cannot seem to do anything about it. Not because we are too lazy or too stupid but we have enormous debts & interest to pay & have to keep our animals alive & make sure pipes don’t leek or motors don’t blow up as even a day without water is a disaster as far as stock go.
We appreciate those who are using their precious time to try & make sure we get a fair deal as I am sure their partners have to keep things going at home & work extra hours to do it.