Call to put pen to paper in sheep-tagging campaign

Published on Tuesday 27 May 2008 22:41

NFU Scotland's campaign against EU plans for compulsory double tagging of sheep and the logging of electronic records of every animal is into its fourth month.

The industry consensus is that this would be totally unworkable in Scotland, where sheep flocks are much larger than in the rest of Europe and can be spread over such an extensive area that stocking rates are often counted in acres per sheep rather than sheep per acre.

NFUS in conjunction with the Scottish Farmer has been running a petition – a suggestion emanating from a meeting of the Teviotdale Farmers' Club in Hawick, a society founded in 1859. Farmers will have the opportunity to sign the petition at all the major shows throughout the summer.

The most important day may be on 26 June when Neil Parish, chairman of the EU's agricultural committee, visits Glenfernate farm, near Pitlochry.

Parish has already indicated that he has a degree of sympathy for the Scottish argument against the proposed system.

Nigel Miller, vice-president of NFUS, said: "Batch movement of sheep is the cornerstone upon which the Scottish sheep industry is built. Such a large and highly stratified industry needs to be able to move many thousands of sheep in as simple and practicala method as possible.

"But before we even consider the practicability, the cost of what the proposals would seek to introduce would in all likelihood destroy the Scottish sheep sector."