LIVESTOCK South Australia has welcomed the South Australian Government’s two-year extension of the eID tag discount for sheep and goat producers.

Chief executive Travis Tobin said the announcement would assure livestock producers and the broader industry there would be no interruption to tag assistance.

“Producers across SA are doing it tough, with lowest-on-record rainfall for successive years so any measures that help reduce the cost of doing business help,” he said.

The transition to sheep and goat eID was one of the most significant changes in small stock for some time and more support was still needed.

Mr Tobin said Livestock SA was still calling for a broader $11.8 million Stage 2 eID implementation package, including tag rebates for the next three years, funding to support double tagging of older sheep and regional training to assist with adoption and compliance.

“With compliance activities scheduled to start on July 1, we also need to better understand the government’s approach to missing or non-reading tags, and implications for parts of the supply chain that may not be ready — we haven’t seen any details around this yet,” he said. 

“We will continue working constructively with the government to see the full Stage 2 package delivered, which will help ensure a smooth transition to eID across the supply chain.”