Concern over tag reading

One of the most controversial changes in recent years has been the electronic tagging of sheep.

Yesterday statistics emerged that the ability of equipment to “read” these tags remains at about 95 per cent for sheep that have been recently tagged.

However, according to Scot EID, which has monitored the results of more than three million sheep, that read rate falls by about 3 per cent for those that have been tagged in the previous year.

ScotEID manager Bob Yuill said that had been thought that read rates might improve incrementally over time, but now evidence indicated that this might be difficult. “I think we will be doing really well just to keep to a 95 per cent average batch read rate,” he said.

“The tag manufacturers are doing a good job – as we can see improvement from last year for individual tag types – but the fact that tags or EID transponders degrade over time is concerning.”

However, he said that given the current read rates, Scottish farmers should not be concerned, as the database provided immediate real-time traceability for all EID sheep moving through control points.