EID for sheep farmers in 2015 – The facts

Electronic Identification (EID) for farm livestock has been around for a long time, mainly used by pedigree livestock farmers.  Many commercial livestock producers have held a negative view of EID, because of the extra cost of the tags (and perceived hassle) without achieving a price premium for their livestock.

There are also strong views that it is unnecessary to individually electronically tag lambs that are born and reared on one holding and destined for slaughter at under 12 months.

However, with the new 2015 EID for sheep farmers rule changes, the UK sheep industry now (by and large) recognises that it’s here to stay and there is a growing number of farmers starting to ask how they can use the technology to safeguard their Single Farm payments and also improve the physical and financial performance of their flocks.

But we’ve noted that there’s still much confusion among farmers as to how the rule changes affect their own farm business arrangements in terms of flock register and movement reporting.

EID for sheep farmers in 2015 – The facts

I’m going to give a quick re-cap on the main facts of the 2014/2015 EID rule changes for sheep identification and recording in England.

April 2014 saw the introduction of the new ARAMS database for reporting sheep movements in England.  This new system is able to handle both paper movement documents as well as offering farmers electronic methods for reporting movements.

From 1^st April 2014 all movements (whether on paper or electronic) should be sent to the Animal Reporting and Movement Service (ARAMS) at Milton Keynes.

From 1^st January 2015, all lambs destined for slaughter  at under 12 months will need to have a single EID tag.  This tag can simply have your “UK” flock-mark printed on it, but the electronic chip inside will have a full EID number.   Lambs can still be “full EID” tagged, which is comprises two identifiers with the same number, one of which must be electronic.  The latter option is of course applicable where ewe lambs are to be retained for breeding.

As mentioned before, you are not required by law to electronically read this number yourself, but there may be good reasons for doing so, which we’ll discuss in a future blog post.

For slaughter lamb under 12 months, markets will continue to report your Off movements for you direct to ARAMS.  Pretty much all markets and abattoirs are designated as Central Point Recording Centres (CPRC), which means they will scan your animal tags for you.  You are not required by law to purchase your own tag reading equipment.  When the market has scanned your lambs, they will continue to provide you with a list of the tags for your flock records.

Also from 1^st January 2015 “historic flock” animals (animals without an electronic tag), will need to have their full individual numbers recorded on the movement document.  This being the case, it many farmers likely decide to electronically tag them for ease of movement reporting – especially for farm to farm movements.  For historic animals not being sold for slaughter, electronic tagging might make them a more attractive proposition for buyers at market.

EID for sheep farmers in 2015 – More facts

The DEFRA website contains full information for sheep identification, registration and movement

Alternatively, you can download the Guidance on the rules for sheep keepers in England as a PDF (Adobe Reader) document