THE Pastoralists and Graziers' Association of WA (PGA) has maintained its longstanding stance on mandatory electronic identification, saying they are far from convinced the benefits would outweigh the costs.
Livestock committee chairman Chris Patmore believes WA already has an "exceptionally good" traceability system in place, in the mob based records with pink transaction tags.
Mr Patmore said the system was superior to what was used in other States and he felt producers were being forced into a new system to accommodate the lowest common denominator.
"It looks like we are being bulldozed into this, so our job is to make the best out of a bad situation," Mr Patmore said.
"We have always said we would support mandatory eIDs when we have been convinced the benefits outweigh the costs.
"At this stage we are far from convinced - it's a fact that on average, a sheep will have between 1.1 and 1.2 owners.
"Therefore most sheep go from the breeder directly to slaughter or live export."
Mr Patmore said there would be no traceability benefit in sheep from using an expensive electronic ear tag.
He said many members had contacted PGA with their frustration, particularly for sucker lambs, which are sent straight to slaughter.
"We accept that traceability can always be improved, but there are also needs to improve the National Vendor Declarations, National Livestock Identification System database and recording of property-to-property movements," he said.
"Mandatory eIDs won't do anything to improve these."
Mr Patmore said State and Federal governments had decided this was good medicine for everyone to swallow, so they need to pay up.
"At this stage their meagre financial commitments mean sheep breeders will be forced to bear the brunt of the cost," he said.
Charles Wass, who runs a 2000-head commercial ewe flock and 200-head Dohne stud at Harold Park, Coorow, agreed.
"eID is a management decision, and therefore it should be left in the producers' hands," Mr Wass said.
After three years of research, he pulled the trigger and began transitioning to eID in August.
More than $10,000 was spent on the first 500 eID tags, a tag reader and other hardware.
Despite making the change by choice, he believed the current pink tagged, mob-based system worked effectively.
"The experts talk about eID bringing value, well I'm from a standpoint where we are using eID.
"We have started using it in our stud and over time it will be rolled out across our entire system.
"It suits our farm and our management, but I certainly wouldn't be telling my neighbour how to manage his mob of sheep - that's his business.
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"It would be like the government coming out and saying grain growers have to grow a certain breed of wheat."
Not even a year in, Mr Wass has found two broken and one missing eID tag in a mob of 100 ram lambs.
This was something he very rarely saw in coloured tags.
As well as durable, Mr Wass said tests had proven the current tracking system was very accurate and reliable.
He said this meant the argument of traceability fell over straight away.
"All the reasons they've come up with are very easy to shoot holes in, but they are running with them anyway."
Since the government announced eID would be mandatory, plenty of farmers and industry stakeholders have questioned the cost versus benefit.
Each eID costs anywhere between $1.70 and $2.
Last month, the WA Government announced eID tags for the 2023 lamb and kid drop would be discounted.
The Tag Incentive Payment discount of 75 cents is part of a $3.4 million investment to implement the system and enhance traceability capacity.
Mr Wass said to receive any benefit from the tag, farmers would need to purchase a reader, computer, control and change management processes onfarm to utilise the information collected.
He said it didn't necessarily result in a return for the farmer.
"If you don't change anything then you aren't going to make any more money by transitioning to eID," Mr Wass said.
"Already we cull and select for certain traits.
"If we continue to do that more efficiently then it would be labour saving, but that's all."
Mr Wass added, "there is talk the cattle industry has been doing it for years, but (for example) a cow is worth $2000 and they are putting a two dollar tag in".
"A sheep is worth less than a tenth the price and we are putting a tag of the same price in.
"That's a big difference when it comes to additional production costs."
When it came to biosecurity threats, Mr Wass argued that eID was not the solution for managing or tracing a foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak.
If FMD was to reach Australian shores it would likely result in immediate closure of meat export markets and a nationwide shutdown of livestock movements - regardless of if animals had been eID tagged or not.
"They say the individual tracking system will protect us against FMD.
"eID is about identifying and characterising individual animals - not the flock.
"If it was detected onfarm, that entire farm would be shutdown."
Mr Wass added, "I'm not across all biosecurity threats, but they wouldn't trace the movements of one sheep, put it in quarantine and leave the rest of the mob.
"Same as if it were detected at Muchea saleyards, they'd trace every flock there, not just an individual".
He said if the government was going to introduce and make something mandatory, there had to be a significant issue they were wanting to deal with.
