UK farming unions join forces against EID sheep tagging

The UK farming unions have joined forces against the introduction of the new Electronic Identification for sheep saying the current ID and batch recording delivers everything it needs to including protection against the spread of animal disease within the UK.

Farming leaders are angry about the proposed EID system saying the performance of electronic readers is often compromised by working conditions throughout the supply chain and will cost farmers up to 40 per cent of their income without delivering any benefits to food safety or disease control.

The NFU, NFU Cymru, NFU Scotland and the Ulster Farmers' Union have all expressed their serious concerns about EID for the nation's 33 million sheep. They say there are fundamental issues about maintaining individual ID and traceability for sheep that makes the scheme impossible to put into practice.