Livestock producer and Sheep Producers Australia board member, Michael Craig, Harrow, said his experiences with eID had been positive for his business.
Mr Craig said he introduced eID to his livestock enterprise more than 10 years ago.
“We always used eID tags in our breeding sheep,” he said.
“The big change when it became mandatory was that we tagged our terminal lambs and that changed the way we assessed those stock.
“We moved to an assessment based on average daily weight gain, using auto weighing.”
Mr Craig said the data on individual sheep meant they could target and make decisions around nutrition much better.
Another key learning was the need to use a common language when taking and storing data collected.
He said the data needed to be collected in the same way and using consistent language around terminology – every year.
“That way we can use this valuable data to compare our progress,” he said.
Mr Craig said that when considering the introduction of eID nationally, the industry needed to understand that large areas of Australia were experiencing “really tough” conditions.
