Guy Barnett,Minister for Primary Industries and Water
The Tasmanian Government is supporting the red meat industry with an investment of up to $250,000 for a project to explore the introduction of Electronic Identification Devices (EID) in sheep.
In addition to the biosecurity benefits, EIDs promote provenance and market surety which are important to the Tasmanian Brand and our trade performance now and into the future.
The project is part of a $1 million Tasmanian Government commitment to support the development of the red meat industry and has been developed by the Tasmanian Red Meat Industry Steering Committee (TRMISC) chaired by Felicity Richards.
This first phase of the EID project will also allow the industry in Tasmania to gain insights from Victoria and other states, and from those Tasmanian sheep producers who have voluntarily chosen to use EIDs.
"EIDs have long been required for cattle. In Tasmania, they are currently required for sheep if the animals are sold or transferred under a market program, or if the animals are moved to Victoria where sheep EIDs are mandatory", Ms Richards said.
"These insights will inform the later stages of the project which will include detailed roadmaps for their use in Tasmania".
Hadspen property owner Marcus James has chosen to use EIDs in his breeding flock.
"We see the long-term benefit of EIDs as an on-farm tool to improve productivity through better monitoring and management of animal welfare and performance,'' Mr James said.
"EIDs not only enable us to collect more data, but via the capability to automate drafting they also allow us to efficiently use that information to deliver better production and on farm outcomes."
Red meat is a key component of Tasmanian agriculture and a strong meat industry is essential to achieving our target to sustainably grow the farm gate value of Tasmanian agriculture to $10 billion by 2050.
