Last updated 21:59, Wednesday, 02 July 2008

THE fight for a more appropriate, cost-effective and practical way of identifying and recording the movements of Scotland’s sheep flock has moved on to the European agenda with the backing of almost 6,000 Scottish farmers.

An industry petition organised with Scottish Farmer magazine and Teviotdale Farmers’ Group will be presented to the European parliament’s petitions committee, which is likely to consider it on July 16 and 17. This is the start of a programme of action at a European level.

The petition calls for Europe to remove the current requirement to double tag low-risk sheep, in particular homebred ewes that never leave the farm of birth. In addition, it demands that the Commission scrap plans to individually identify all sheep and record their movements and that any future sheep ID and movement recording system must be on a batch basis.

Finally, it wants the Commission to review the cost-effectiveness of electronic identification (EID) of sheep before the planned implementation at the end of 2009.

NFU Scotland vice-president Stewart Wood said: “There is a real momentum behind this campaign, from hard-working shepherds all the way to UK politicians. We have almost 6,000 signatures to date, boosted by those who attended the Royal Highland Show and we will continue to collect signatures in the run up to Europe’s largest one-day sheep sale, held annually at Lairg, on Wednesday, August 13.

“European decision-makers must be made to appreciate that Scottish sheep farmers are more than happy to play their part in delivering an appropriate system which traces the movements of livestock but that system must be practical and pragmatic. The current European requirements on this subject are a long way from what the Scottish sheep industry can live and work with.”

Those wishing to sign the petition can log on to the NFU Scotland website at www.nfus.org.uk or The Scottish Farmer website at www.thescottishfarmer.co.uk