Double tagging older sheep: all cost, no biosecurity gain

From 1 January 2027, most Australian states will require every sheep leaving a property to carry an electronic identification (eID) tag, regardless of the animal's age. For newborn lambs, that transition is well underway and largely sensible. But for older sheep, animals already carrying a visual National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) tag, many of them heading straight to slaughter, the looming deadline makes very little sense. WoolProducers Australia is again calling on state governments to defer this requirement, and to do so before woolgrowers and sheep producers are forced to spend money and labour for no biosecurity return.

It is worth being precise about where things stand, because the timelines are not uniform, which on another note, is an added reason why WoolProducers withdrew its support from the roll-out of eIDs in 2024.

Every state and territory already requires eID for sheep and goats born on or after 1 January 2025 before they leave their property of birth. It is the second stage, mandatory eID for all sheep and goats, regardless of age, before leaving a property, that lands on 1 January 2027 in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania.

Victoria sits outside this as it completed its own sensible year-on-year lamb tagging eID transition back a number of years ago and is therefore not part of the 2027 milestone. Western Australia is the outlier in the other direction, having moved its full-implementation date forward to 1 July 2026, which was done with significant tag rebates from their state government for producers. So, while the 2027 deadline is often spoken of as a single national event, it is in truth a decision resting with four state governments, and it is those four that need to think again about older sheep.

Let me be clear about what this deadline means in practice. In NSW, Qld, SA and Tasmania, the transitional arrangements have allowed older ewes and sheep to be sold on their existing visual tags right up until January 2027, at which point mandatory eID applies to all sheep and goats leaving a property. The result is that, from the start of 2027, a producer will have to muster a mob of aged sheep, run them through the yards, and apply an electronic tag before trucking them, often to animals that will be processed within a day or two. That is cost, handling and stress imposed on stock and people alike, with no corresponding gain.

The traceability argument simply does not hold for these animals. As I have said publicly, it is an unnecessary cost burden to apply an electronic tag to an older sheep that already carries a visual tag and already has a level of traceability, particularly when so many of these sheep are sent directly to slaughter. These animals can easily be added to the system and can already be traced. Having a visual tag in place and then adding an electronic one at the final movement before slaughter does not add a single data point that matters for disease response, it simply duplicates identification that already exists. That is the definition of redundancy: cost and handling imposed on producers and stock, with no biosecurity return.

Let me be unequivocal about this: WoolProducers is a strong advocate for robust, world-leading livestock traceability. A genuinely enhanced system is squarely in the interests of woolgrowers, because it underpins our market access, our disease-response capability and the reputation of Australian wool and sheepmeat abroad. We want a traceability system that works, one built on nationally consistent business rules, a database capable of handling every FMD-susceptible species, and equitable funding to establish and maintain it. That is precisely why we cannot accept measures that impose real cost while delivering none of that.

It is worth putting our advocacy on the record, because WoolProducers has been the lone national voice on this issue for a long time. Back on 30 January 2024, we made the difficult decision to withdraw our support for the mandatory national eID roll-out. That was not a kneejerk reaction, it was the culmination of concerns we had been raising for months, dating back to 2023, about inequitable funding and a lack of national harmonisation. We set out three clear caveats underpinning our support: a nationally harmonised system operating on consistent business rules, investment in a database capable of handling all FMD-susceptible species, and an equitable funding arrangement for both establishment and ongoing maintenance. When at least two of those three caveats went unmet, we could not in good conscience continue to endorse the process.

On the specific question of double tagging older sheep, WoolProducers remains the only national body to have opposed it. No other national sheep producer representative organisation has publicly pushed back on the requirement and have supported this redundant requirement since deliberations began in 2023. That is not a criticism of others so much as a statement of fact - on this issue, woolgrowers and sheep producers have had one national voice lobbying in their interests, and it has been ours.

At a state level there has been limited movement on this issue. At the 2025 NSW Farmers conference, woolgrowers and sheep producers voted to oppose eID requirements for sheep already identified as NLIS-compliant before January 2025, and we welcomed that support and again more recently, at their 2026 NSW Annual Conference, they went further, calling on the NSW Government to push the implementation date back to January 2029.

AgForce Queensland has been a consistent ally on this specific point. Its Sheep, Wool and Goats leadership has long called for a prolonged rollout for older animals that are already tagged and has repeatedly warned about the sheer futility and expense of double tagging, pointing to the absurdity of freighting an already-identified sheep to a saleyard or works, with tag cost and cartage stacked on top, only for the animal to be slaughtered.

Between them, now quickly approaching the 2027 deadline, they have now put the older-sheep problem back on the table. But there is an important distinction: NSW Farmers and AgForce are state-based bodies, each speaking to its own jurisdiction and therefore having the power and influence to make these changes at a state level, however given we are at the 11th hour, has this run been left too late? WoolProducers called it, and we called it early.

WoolProducers continues to urge state governments to defer the 1 January 2027 requirement for older sheep already carrying a compliant visual tag. This is not and never has been a request to abandon eID or traceability. It is a request to implement it sensibly, so that woolgrowers and sheep producers are not slugged with an added cost and workload that delivers no biosecurity benefit.

We remain ready to work constructively with governments to get this right. But getting it right means listening to the people who have been flagging these problems the longest.

Jo Hall

CEO, WoolProducers Australia