Sheep EID drop-in day

Electronic sheep tagging became a reality at the beginning of the year and the event, organised by Craven Cattle Marts and Skipton NFU, is designed to explain the new legislation.

Demonstrations will showcase the latest developments in tag reading, tag reading software and integrated handling systems - and how they can contribute and combine to make recording easier.

Jeremy Eaton, CCM’s general manager; Ted Ogden, livestock sales manager and Sam Bradley, junior auctioneer, will be on hand to answer queries when not on duty at Craven Champions Day – the mart's annual show and sale of store cattle with show potential – which is on the same day.

Tim Palmer, Skipton NFU group secretary , and Chris Dickinson, West Riding county advisor, and representatives from NFU national headquarters in Stoneleigh, will also be present, along with Eblex, ARAMS, the Animal Reporting and Movement Service, who are administering the electronic movement reporting system, and the National Sheep Association (NSA).

A keynote speaker is Ian Cairns, from DEFRA’s Farm Advisory Service (FAS), who is well versed with all aspects of EID and will give a number of presentations throughout the day on cross compliance and sheep identification.

Mr Eaton said: "It is important to hear the words of an expert like Ian on how non-compliance might well affect farmers’ Single Farm Payments."

Dedicated Rural Safer Neighbourhoods officers from North Yorkshire Police’s Craven Country Watch initiative will also attend. They now have a scanner to enable roadside scanning and identification of sheep, as part of a brief to tackle rural crime more effectively.

Shearwell Tags, Allfex, Cox Agri, Caisley Eartag, Countryside Services, Earlsmere ID, Nordic Star, Ketchum, Brox, Symtag, Quicktags, Roxan ID, Fearings, Top Tags Animal ID, Farmplan and Kingsway Vets have all been invited to attend.

Mr Eaton said: “The fact is that, while controversial, the individual electronic identification of sheep is now compulsory. Our experience to date is that, with very few exceptions, most electronic tags read, so if legislation is here for good then we may as well attempt to turn it to advantage.

“We have assembled a very strong team of industry experts and suppliers for the drop-in day and hope as many people as possible from our agricultural communities will find time to attend.

“Our advice to them remains: Don’t suffer in silence. Bring wives and children, as you may well find something collectively which can make the handling of this new electronic sheep tagging data easier.

“And if we can solve the issues concerning sheep, it should be fairly simple to incorporate cattle EID, which is just around the corner. The big hope here is that we may get some movement on livestock standstills."

The EID drop-in day runs from 1pm to 7pm.