The Rockliff Liberal Government has announced it will provide $11.66 million to help Tasmanian sheep and goat producers transition to a new electronic identification system by 1 January 2025.
A financial package will be made available to Tasmanian livestock producers to support them in the transition to mandatory electronic tagging of sheep and goats by the start of next year.
The package will support critical infrastructure across the supply chain and provide discounts on tags for livestock producers. It includes:
- Rebates of up to 75% of costs for eID scanning infrastructure for eligible supply chain participants (processors, saleyards, transit yards).
- Rebates of up to 100% of costs for eID scanning equipment for eligible agricultural societies and not-for-profit groups.
- Rebates of up to 100% of costs for handheld eID scanning devices for eligible producers.
- Producers will also be eligible for a rebate of $1 per eID ear tag and $4 per eID goat leg band.
The infrastructure funding can be accessed via a grant scheme and tags will have the rebate applied at the point of sale.
Minister for Primary Industries and Water Jo Palmer said the entire nation is working to introduce mandatory ID tagging of sheep and goats by 1 January 2025.
“eID’s are a valuable, on-farm and off-farm tool that are designed to assist in traceability,” Minister Palmer said.
“Tasmania is fortunate to have some of the world’s best produce. Traceability is important for biosecurity, product integrity and maintaining market access advantages and consumer confidence.
“In the event of an emergency animal disease outbreak or incident, it is critical that animal location and movements can be traced quickly to limit the spread of disease and reduce impacts.
“eIDs will further protect Tasmania’s agricultural industries.”
Minister Palmer said the Rockliff Liberal Government is committed to supporting the meat industry and working with the sector to strengthen monitoring and tracing.
Opportunities for the industry to provide feedback on developing and implementing Tasmania’s sheep and goat eID has, and continues to be, provided through two industry advisory groups. Representatives of the sheep and goat industry supply chains are involved, to ensure a collaborative roll out.
Initiatives and tools to support the meat industry are essential to help achieve the Rockliff Liberal Government’s target to sustainably grow the farm gate value of Tasmanian agriculture to $10 billion by 2050.
