In Victoria, electronic ID (eID) tags are mandatory for sheep and eligible goats born after 1^st January 2017 for biosecurity and traceability. While eID tags are crucial for biosecurity and traceability, they also have many other benefits when used in your flock management.

Electronic ID tags can improve the accuracy of individual animal identification and better individual management. They can help with making management decisions during joining and pre-lambing, track genetic gains according to bloodline or sire group, and help producers make decisions based off productivity data of carcass and wool sample results. Chances are you may already be using your eID tags to help make management decisions without even realising it!

Getting started with eIDs may seem overwhelming, and there is lots of equipment and programs available to producers in today’s market that offer amazing data collection and analysis properties.

To make it simpler, the first step for any producer wanting to use eIDs for flock management is to first determine their flock management objective:

• Do you want to improve fleece quality?
• Monitor weight gain in prime lambs
• Increase your lambing percentage
• Reduce time and labour in the yards
• Reduce the handling required on your animals throughout the year.

By clearly setting out your goals, the next step is to work out what data is required to achieve these. This will help producers choose which scanning equipment is required, and what data software to use.

eID related data collection doesn’t always require an auto-draft, and producers only need to record the data they will use. Running a prime lamb operation? Then you may not be focused on fleece quality, so individual fleece sample results are not required to make your management decisions. There is no need to collect every piece of data possible unless you’re going to use it.

The Meat and Livestock Australia funded ‘Realising benefits from sheep eIDs’ producer demonstration project’ is co-facilitated by Southern Farming Systems (SFS) and Birchip Cropping Group (BCG). This project is an opportunity for producers to trial using eID tags as part of their data collection and flock management strategies, with the support from SFS and BCG.  To date there is 10 core producers demonstrating different uses of eID’s on farm and a growing Facebook community of 60 producers sharing experiences.

So get on board and apply for the third and final round of participation applications, to support you on your eID data collection journey for better management decisions. Applications close on 24^th of March 2023 and any livestock producer can apply by contacting Tahlia Ferguson at tferguson@sfs.org.au

More information regarding general eID requirements in Victoria can be accessed on the Agriculture Victoria website, or by contacting your local BestWool/BestLamb group coordinator.