PHOTO: Non electronic ID tags will be a thing of the past for sheep by January 2025.
In July 2022, NSW Agriculture Minister Dugald Saunders announced the state would join a national traceability effort for the movement of sheep and goats in Australia.
The impetus for this national biosecurity plan was an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease in Indonesia and was followed with a $20.1 million Federal Government announcement of funding. At that time Victoria was the only state to mandate the use of electronic identification (eID) ear tags in sheep and goats.
Now, under the National Livestock Identification System, sheep and farmed goats born after January 1, 2025 will require an eID tag before leaving a property, and from January 1, 2027 all farmed sheep and goats will require an eID tag…