FRUSTRATION - let's get people talking
Is everyone just as frustrated as I am???
I have ordered the tags now but we did have to wait for all the legislation to be in writing....... which came out AFTER we started lambing .... and it would have been worse for the Suffolk guys........ but once we had the info we could decide on our plan.
I had to haggle with price as some places will give RRP and some places (Eg local machinery ring) gave a deal.
I have looked at the new style flock register.... not sure I have spotted the difference yet but I'm sure it will be in the re-tagging page??
I have read the bit about all the traceability/batch within a batch etc etc AND the bit that says write it all in the flock book, AND the bit that says if the readers aren't working at the CCP then there will be an explanation to attach to the flock record..... OH DEAR..... just lost traceability, and if it happens in Lairg that will be 11,000 lambs' info lost..... Am I a cynic or is it all a farce?!!!
When does the campaigning start to see what derogations we can get for any next phase??
I'm only guessing but will it all be too late to make a difference?
Our tags are coming to £1.06/lamb. (Partly because we are recording 330 ewes and their lambs we are tagging at birth, we don't want to lose tags because that means losing breeding info, so had to go for something that will stay in. Bolus could have been good but that would mean waiting)
That's alot of money....... and on a big scale it is enormous.
So.... campaigning.... will they back track? What about lambs that stay at home for their whole life until that trip along the road to a slaughter house.... 50p tag in for all of a couple of hours.
What about ewes that will never leave their holding of birth until cull ewes?
And for all the people that say it will be a very helpful management tool.... YES it will be for the people that WANT to use it..... but compulsory??
My rant is ended.... Hep P for ewes now
KEM xx
"if the readers aren't
While it is true that individual animal traceability will be lost in such an occurrence, batch traceability will still be maintained. No system will ever be 100% reliable and it seems likely that most marts will have backup systems for reading sheep (like stick readers). However, if there are no backup systems or these systems fail then the choice would seem to be between cancelling the sale or accepting less accurate traceability. For most scenarios cancelling a sale would probably be impractical.
It is unlikely that ALL the info for sheep sold at a large auction would be lost because usually some proportion will go straight to another CCP (most likely an abattoir) and will be read again.
If I were to speculate I think that after winning the CCP concession it seems unlikely that there will be any more derogations for the time being over the 'EID' legislation. There are existing derogations in the legislation that Scot Gov might choose to use at some point in the future. The Scot Gov implementation guidelines may be more malleable in the light of practical experience and data gained from the Pilot.
One issue that a consensus seems to be forming around is that there should be no need for compulsory identification until the animal leaves its holding of birth, irrespective of its age. This appears to be covered by different legislation than the 'EID' legislation, and is being actively pursued with evidence from the Pilot.