Herd about the new cattle tag?
Roadshows on electronic ID system
Farmers are being consulted about a revolutionary electronic identification system to track and monitor Scotland’s cattle herd.
A nationwide roadshow is visiting 34 locations – with two events in Stirling this December.
The meetings will give the farming community the chance to find out more details on the current proposal for the Scottish cattle electronic identification system (EID).
The system, which looks set to become mandatory in 2021, will use technology contained in a chip within the animal ear tag. It will allow for scanning cattle in ‘batches’, meaning less handling, particularly useful for large herd owners and to smooth processes at marts and abattoirs. It will also spell the end of paper cattle passports.
ScotEID’s Anna Robertson is meeting with farmers and crofters all over Scotland as part of the major awareness raising exercise.
Anna comes from a farming family near Huntly, in Aberdeenshire and has her own small herd of Charolais cattle so will be among those moving to the new system in the future.
She said: “We are covering the whole of Scotland with our roadshows, which is quite an undertaking, but it’s very important that we’re able to support the industry and explain what’s ahead at a time of change. We want farmers to be aware of what’s happening and know the guidelines to what’s ahead in the next 18 months and to support them in that journey.
“This is very much an information sharing meeting, a conversation and a chance to ask questions.”
Following the first wave of consultation meetings, additional events will take place from January to March next year.
The Stirling meetings take place on December 5 in United Auctions’ Stirling
Agricultural Centre at noon and in the Golden Lion Hotel at 7pm.
Anyone who would like to attend the meetings is asked to contact the ScotEID information centre on 01466 794323 to reserve their place to allow for catering and seating arrangements.
ScotEID manages the database for recording animal movements in Scotland and has designed and developed the new recording system. It will incorporate births, deaths and movements of cattle, replacing the British Cattle Movement Service’s (BCMS) Cattle Tracing System (CTS) for Scottish cattle keepers and provide an online line service and with the introduction of bovine EID and an Online Herd Register.
Anna added: “Farmers won’t have to do anything different on the farm. Their practices are not going to change, it is the tag that is changing. The difference is that from 2021, there will be an electronic chip within the tag for their calves.
“There is no need to have any expensive new technology, just to have the correct tags that have the EID chips in place from the manufacturer.”
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