Sheep ID rules will not be gold plated says DEFRA

Sheep farmers will be able to sleep easy knowing that they only need to count their flock and not record each individual number.

That's because the nightmare scenario of farmers having to record the individual number of every sheep in Britain now looks certain to be avoided on the back of an intensive lobbying campaign by the NFU in Brussels and Whitehall.

The requirement for individual ID for sheep had been on the cards following the announcement from Brussels that the UK would not be granted an extension to its derogation to European sheep ID regulations.

Defra officials have now told sheep representatives that they intend to introduce a much simpler ID system from the start of next year.

Alistair Mackintosh, regional livestock chairman said: "The NFU's national team has met the Commission almost weekly during the past month and a half to persuade them that the original proposals to move to introduce individual ID would cripple the British sheep sector.

"As a sheep producer, I recognise that some farmers will be disappointed that we will have to double tag breeding sheep. However we won't have to record individual numbers and it also looks likely that lambs entering the food chain at under 12 months of age will be able to move on a single tag."

Breeding animals born on or after 1 January 2008 will require double tags although no direct reference to the flock numbers or individual numbers will have to be recorded on movement documentation. Instead, farmers will only be required to record the total number of sheep being moved and the relevant holding numbers – where the sheep are moving from and where they are moving to.

The decision to discontinue the existing S-tag system comes on the back of a determined lobbying campaign by the NFU and other industry stakeholders to simplify the sheep identification rules.

Alistair added: "I was very disappointed that the Commission did not recognise the enormous efforts that most farmers had undertaken to comply with the existing rules.

"We had always privately recognised that extending the derogation was going to be difficult and that the final decision was ultimately out of the control of our government. However, our firm stance in Brussels and Whitehall has paid dividends for sheep producers in Britain when Defra conceded not to gold-plate EU rules.

"Whilst the devil is in the detail, I'm confident that common sense will prevail."

The next step, he says, is to persuade the Commission that the need for electronic individual ID in sheep is no longer justified. This has been on the cards for some time and was set to be introduced in January 2008.