A DAMNING report which reveals the failures of the country's mob-based tracing of sheep has been postponed for public release until March while industry groups grapple with the findings.
The Sheepcatcher II report assesses a national sheep traceability exercise undertaken in June, testing the visual National Livestock Identification System for sheep and goats against the National Livestock Performance Standards (NLPS).
While only Agriculture Victoria has revealed the State's poor findings - which took 14 days to track 14 sheep for an inconclusive result - it is believed all State's failed to meet the NLPS with the visual, mob-based system.
Western Australia and South Australia were among the worst performing in the exercise.
"When we release the report, it highlights the shortcomings so we have to have a plan to address these," Safemeat chair Ross Keane said.
Mr Keane said Sheepcatcher II revealed some improvements to the country's ability to track livestock since the exercise was last undertaken in 2007.
"General compliance has improved and it does also say if the mob-based system was properly used it could meet our traceability standards," he said.
"Whether we have improved enough is debatable.
"The sample is only small and designed to be a sample from national perspective, not a single State's point of view so we won't get into whether one State does it better."
The visual NLIS aims to identify and trace sheep and goats for food safety, market access, product integrity and animal disease outbreak - with one of the largest threats to the trade being foot and mouth disease.
While the challenges to meet the NLPS have been spruiked as the catalyst for the Victorian Government's decision to mandate electronic identification (EID) tags for the sheep and goat industry, the State has been accused of "political point scoring" and slammed for abandoning the national approach.
"They need to look in the rear-view mirror and see what mistakes were made in the cattle industry, but I'm thinking (Victoria) is going to make the same mistakes again," Mr Keane said.
"We now have to go with one State (transition to EID) at a time and Victoria doesn't even have (immediate) mandatory property to property tracing."
From March 31, 2018, EID tagged sheep and goats moving from property to property in Victoria must be scanned, with information uploaded to the NLIS database.
"Why do anything before you have full traceability?" Mr Keane said.
"The cattle industry staggered everything and took forever to be compliant.
"I'm encouraging the sheep industry not to make the same mistakes because it doesn't make sense to do it one State at time."
Mr Keane said there were would be continuing problems in relation to the cattle industry's efforts to meet the compliance with mandatory electronic tagging over the past seven years.
He said traceability issues which affected the cattle industry would flow through to sheep and goats on a larger scale given the greater stock numbers.?
Victorian Agriculture Minister Jaala Pulford said there was no doubt whatsoever about the shortcomings with the existing mob based system, and that was why Victoria was getting on with the job of switching across to a robust, cost-effective 21st Century solution.
"Reliable, effective and swift traceability of sheep and goats is just as important as it is for cattle, and it necessary to protect and grow the industry," Ms Pulford said.
"The matter of whether the nationwide results of the Sheepcatcher II traceability exercise are publicly released is a matter for others."
Annabelle Beale
National Sheep & Wool Writer for Fairfax Agricultural Media
National Sheep & Wool Writer for Fairfax Agricultural Media
