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Opportunity for sheep hauliers
Page 13
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Sy Louse Cole LIVESTOCK HAULIERS might find a lucrative business opportunity on the hack of an EU directive to record all sheep movements in the UK, says the National Farmers Union (NFU).
Under European regulation 21/2004, from 1 January 2010 each of the 13 million breeding sheep in the UK must be ear-tagged with an electronic identification chip. From 1 January 2011, every time the sheep enter a vehicle, the chips must be scanned, providing a record of each one's movements within the country.
NFU livestock adviser Alastair Johnston says: "Hauliers might well be able to offer data recording as an additional service to farmers."
The data, which includes the animal's origin, flock and unique ID number. must be printed and kept, even if the sheep moves within a farm.
Agricultural hauliers looking for new services could theoretically handle all parts of the tagging and data collection service for customers. The tags take the form of Radio Frequency ID chips (RFID), which are read using specialist scanners. The NFU is still in talks with the EU over whether or not all domestic sheep — some 33 million at the height of the flock — will require tagging.