Scots government favours early introduction of EID in cattle

All calves born in Scotland may soon have to be fitted with electronic (EID) ear tags, if government plans to “modernise” how the country’s cattle are identified and traced come to fruition.

A new consultation was launched on Thursday (4 April) with two options up for consideration.

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The one favoured by the government, following talks with the Bovine EID Industry Stakeholder Working Group, is to make it mandatory for all newborn calves to be fitted with EID tags, and for farmers to be given the option of fitting them to older animals.

A date would then be set for when it would become a legal requirement for all cattle to have electronic ear tags.

The other option is for EID to only be a requirement in newborns, with older animals retaining existing conventional ear tags, creating what the government describes as a “dual system”.

Doing nothing has already been ruled out because of plans by Defra and the Welsh government to roll out EID too.

Registration

The consultation is also seeking views on an online register for cattle, and the removal of paper cattle passports for animals fitted with EID.

The consultation, the culmination of work first started in 2017, was welcomed by NFU Scotland president Martin Kennedy.

“We hope that this will finally progress the introduction of Bovine EID, and, ultimately, will negate the need for paper passports, offering both industry and government a significant saving,” he said.

The consultation will remain open until 27 June.