Scotland to set up Sheep Database

SCOTLAND is to be the first UK country to implement a real-time EID database for sheep movements, reducing the amount of paperwork for farmers, markets and processors.

The announcement made this week by the Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has thrown the spotlight onto England and Wales where no plans for a similar move have been made public, despite speculation there is mounting pressure from the EU for all member states using sheep EID to have central databases.

The ScotEID database – involving 3,200 farms and 60 per cent of the breeding flock – has already been running as part of the Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society’s (SAOS) EID research project. With the Scottish Government’s pledge of an additional £1 million funding, bringing the project’s total to £5m, the database will be developed and extended to include reporting systems from farms, markets, abattoirs and ferry terminals.

Speaking on farm on Tuesday (November 9), Mr Salmond acknowledged the widespread dislike of compulsory EID but said investment by his Government had created a ‘workable’ system.

“We are working to help realise the long-term benefits of electronic identification, such as sharing information along the production and processing chain, all of which could contribute to improving the quality of our world-class produce.”

He argued a robust, real-time database would improve traceability, adding value to Scotch lamb, and ‘protect the industry from the ravages of disease’. Jim McLaren, NFUS president, supported Mr Salmond’s announcement, saying it ‘tied in beautifully’ with farmers using marts as Critical Control Points (CCPs) to avoid owning EID readers. Farmers using this route would avoid the need to maintain any individual movement records on farm, he said.

He said all reporting systems should be able to populate the Scottish database, even those south of the border, but said it would be preferable for England and Wales not to be working on a completely different system.

Discussions with Defra on this topic appear to be ongoing, but without any detail on how a database might work and who would pay for it, both the NFU and NSA were reluctant to comment.

There is speculation that the EU delegation which visited the UK on November 2, ahead of EU Commissioner Dalli’s visit on November 19, was critical of the absence of a database, as the original EID regulations from the EU specifically reference the establishment of databases.

Peter Morris, NSA chief executive, said some farmers saw the benefits of reduced paperwork but others had concerns, given the Government’s track record of maintaining databases. But it was currently impossible to make an informed decision, he said.

John Mercer, NFU chief livestock adviser, said more needed to be known about how it might affect sheep keepers.