Donald Wallace says electronic sheep tags are a waste

Well if you believe this, then you would probably believe that electronic tags will turn a sheep's ear into silk that you can make a purse with.

Seriously though, my experience with electronic tags - we have 2000 of them sitting in boxes in the top of our shed, unused.

Yes you can draft sheep by weight, but the biggest problem is you can't draft for anything visual.

Any defects still have to be drafted manually.

For us, it's extra work for no gain.

Being much bulkier than conventional types, they are far more likely to be torn from the ear when sheep put their head through fences etc.

Electronic equipment in sheep yards was a nightmare.

The upshot is no financial return on investment and not very practical.

While the author of this piece may think it's a wonderful idea, I personally think it's opening Pandora's Box.

As every farmer knows, farming and farmers rights are constantly being encroached upon.

We are constantly being repressed with the use of the legal system in how we conduct farm operations, practices and how we think.

Right in the middle of the live sheep fiasco, where a whole industry looks like being quashed because politicians will exploit the situation for political gain with no remorse at all.

Our rights to be free thinking are being eroded in ways we never could have imagined.

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Yes we are a democracy, but the rights of individuals to own, operate and make decisions based upon their own experiences is where innovation is grown from.

Diversity breeds small ideas that grow - no businesses should be forced into compliance of any practice, as there is a chance that your ideology is flawed.

The system we currently have is not broken.

Personally I cannot think why it would be a good idea to log and monitor every individual animal's life to a point where a five-page essay is required every time an animal doesn't turn up.

It may not start out that way but that's the path you are endorsing.

I do not wish to farm in a bureaucratic environment such as, Jeremy Clarkson, from Clarkson's Farm.

If you haven't seen the series, it's well worth watching.

Careful what you wish for you, just might get it.

Social license is a term used for interfering bunch of sticky nosed ol' busybodies that make stuff up.