By January 2024

1. Develop a plan to record individual sheep and goat eIDs and to upload the prescribed information to the NLIS database. In your plan include any specific equipment or software you may require to do this.
2. Contact eID equipment providers for quotes and complete the design and planning form
3. Submit your completed design and planning form to sheepgoateid@dpi.nsw.gov.au, and submit your application for the NSW Sheep and Goat eID Infrastructure Processor Rebate Scheme on the RAA website.

By January 2025

4. Install all eID saleyard software and hardware in addition to completing any necessary infrastructure changes.
5. Complete any required staff training on how to use all new eID equipment and software, provide software training and demonstrations where needed to ensure a smooth transition to the new eID system at processors.
6. Conduct testing of eID scanning and recording capability before 1 January 2025 to identify and mitigate any issues.

From January 2025

7. Start scanning and uploading NLIS movement records for individual sheep and goats fitted with eIDs from 1 January 2025.

From January 2027

8. All sheep and farmed goats will have all movements recorded as individual uploads to the NLIS database.

Visual emergency identifiers will no longer be available.

• Rangeland harvest goats will continue to have a tag free pathway if travelling direct to a processor or via one registered depot
• Commence scanning of farmed goats from 1 Jan 2025

For goat depots that work exclusively with rangeland goats, there will be no changes to the NLIS tag requirements, as such, there are no rebates or management changes required.

For support on any of these steps, contact us at sheepgoateid@dpi.nsw.gov.au.

eID in Saleyards Online Q&A - March 2024

NSW DPI invited agents from Victoria to share their experiences with NSW agents and to answer questions about the logistics around eID use in large saleyards over video call. You can watch the recording here:eID in Saleyards Online Q&A with Victorian agents and saleyard operators

NLIS Support

For more information on how to complete NLIS transfers, visit the Integrity Systems Company Website

NLIS database user guide for saleyards and agents

An eID is an electronic identification device that has an internal microchip and is printed with a unique serial number, which is attached to individual sheep and farmed goats generally in the form of an ear tag, or leg band for some goats. The eID can be scanned and the individual electronic data is uploaded to the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) database. The NLIS is Australia’s system for the identification and traceability of cattle, pigs, sheep and goats.

NLIS (Sheep and Goats) as a mob-based system was fully implemented in mid-2010. The NLIS has matured, and our markets are more stringent in their traceability requirements. Consequently, a more accurate and efficient traceability system for sheep and goats is now required.

The introduction of eID will:

• Provide more accurate and timely traceability of animals
• Reduce time delays to manage an emergency disease or residue incident
• Reduce the number of animals and producers impacted (including animals destroyed) in response to an emergency disease
• Reduce the time that Australia is restricted from export markets following an emergency disease or residue incident.

The key reason for introducing eID is to improve the traceability of individual animals and their cohorts in the event of an emergency disease incursion. If eID is introduced voluntarily, then the ability to undertake accurate and timely traceability will be negatively affected by those producers who are still using a visual tag under a mob-based system. Running two traceability systems in parallel is inefficient, more costly, complex, and less accurate.

This would mean that delays in tracing animals negatively impact the whole sheep and goat sector, leading to disease spread, more animals and producers impacted and more time out of our key export markets.

In NSW, all sheep and farmed goats born from 1 January 2025 must be fitted with an eID before leaving their property of birth. All sheep and farmed goats of any age must be fitted with an eID before leaving a property from 1 January 2027. If non-compliant stock arrives at a saleyard or depot with this timeline:

• If there is a small number of stock in a consignment without an eID, an emergency eID can be fitted, and the vendor can be charged for the cost of the eID.
• If an entire consignment of stock is not identified with eIDs:
  • the stock can be returned to the vendor or
  • the stock can be held until sufficient emergency tags can be obtained and attached

Any goats presenting for processing with leg bands are required to have the leg bands scanned and uploaded into the NLIS database (the leg band contains a microchip). This may be completed by scanning with a handheld reader, positioning a fixed panel reader to scan the goats’ back legs or reading and recording the NLIS serial number on the exterior of eID manually.

For saleyards and depots, if you are not set up in time to be able to scan sheep and goat eIDs by 1 January 2025, you must be able to provide proof of purchase of equipment before 1 January 2025, and consult with your providers for estimated delivery and installation times.

Potential causes of eID tags not being read successfully are the:

• eID is damaged
• reader is experiencing interference
• reader is damaged
• temporary loss in connection between the reader and software.

If the issue is with the tag, you may have to manually record the visual NLIS ID number printed on the exterior of the eID or fit an emergency eID to the animal. If the issue is with your reader or other equipment, contact your equipment manufacturer.

The recent 2020 SAFEMEAT Traceability Evaluation Exercise reported that within 24 hours, 70% of sheep slaughtered using visual tags were traceable back to the vendor or property of residence for the last 30 days, compared to almost 100% of sheep with eIDs accurately traced back to vendor or property of residence within the same period.

Whilst eID does not prevent an exotic disease or residue incident, eID enables more accurate and timely traceability of animals and their cohorts. This is critical for managing disease outbreaks swiftly and reducing the time Australia faces export market bans.

For example, the UK foot-and-mouth outbreak in 2001 took seven weeks to trace animals due to the absence of eID. The disease spread, which resulted in a seven-year export market ban. The implementation of eID in Victoria demonstrated that traceback can now take minutes instead of days.

Ballarat has scanned 60,000 sheep in one day on numerous occasions. By comparison, the largest ever sale in NSW was 80,000 at Wagga Wagga. This demonstrates the feasibility of scanning substantial numbers at NSW saleyards.