Electronic sheep tag rules eased

NFU Scotland says the new tagging system still needs to be reformed

Farmers have welcomed an EU agreement to ease new rules on sheep tagging.

There had been concern over the cost of the new electronic tagging system but animals will now be scanned at markets or abattoirs, instead of farms.

The EU's standing committee on Food Chain and Animal Health agreed that farmers will not have to buy scanners - reducing their costs by about 50%.

But farming leaders warned that more needs to be done to ease the burden of the electronic system on producers.

Welcoming the EU committee's decision, Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead said: "This proposal - developed in Scotland and pushed on to the European agenda by Scotland - is a significant breakthrough and will deliver major savings for our sheep farmers.

"Without this agreement farmers' costs for implementing the new rules would have been around double."

It is not acceptable for the UK Government to now view this campaign as over Jim McLaren NFU Scotland

Regulations due at the start of next year will oblige all farmers to individually tag their sheep and record each animal's identity every time they are moved.

NFU Scotland president Jim McLaren said: "There should be no need to electronically tag any sheep until it leaves its holding of birth.

"It is not acceptable for the UK Government to now view this campaign as over.

"We were told months ago to forget about this issue because it was all apparently done and dusted. Yet, we have shown what concerted and committed action can achieve.

"We must press on further now and consider this as a foundation for getting a regulation that can actually work and deliver for all."

Mr Lochhead said it has been an "uphill battle to inject common sense" into the negotiations.

"We must continue to argue that making farmers tag sheep that are not destined to leave the farm is an unnecessary burden that offers absolutely no improvements to traceability and takes no account of the unique circumstances on Scotland's hills," he added.