Welsh EID

The Welsh Government has announced it will be delaying the roll out of the electronic system to record sheep movements in Wales. – EIDCymru and the requirement for electronic slaughter tags.  Following a consultation on the subject, which closed in May, the new system will not be available until November 2015.  This is to ensure it is robust and to try and ensure mistakes made during the introduction of the English system are not repeated and lessons are learned.  The initial focus will be on livestock markets and abattoirs.  The aim is to have the system available to sheep keepers by January 2016 .  This will coincide with the introduction of electronic slaughter tagging which will be mandatory from 1^st January 2016.  But there are concerns in the industry over cross border trading.  Lambs destined for slaughter in England are required to be tagged with a single electronic identifier (slaughter tag) from this January (2015 – one year earlier).  Welsh farmers may need to introduce the electronic tag earlier if they do not want to miss out on trade across the border.