Presentation to the NFU Cymru Livestock Board

The TAG initiative was presented to the NFU Cymru Livestock Board at their monthly meeting Llanelwedd on December 8th 2011.  The Livestock Board is made up of elected members representing the Welsh counties.

The key objective of the presentation was to familiarise the Board members with the project aim and objectives and progress to date on key milestones. Special areas of interest from the members were:

• the effectiveness and accuracy of the race reader at the lamb processing plant
• tag retention and reliability
• EID equipment reliability

The TAG project Director explained that TAG has always been looked upon as a pilot project with a very complex delivery structure involving multiple industry partners. The project was also established within a very hostile environment in terms of understandable opposition to the introduction of sheep EID under EU and Welsh Government legislation. 

During the last few weeks leading up to the meeting the development of the infrastructure and communication structures which are a major part of the project had been completed. E.g. Database development, on farm software development, abattoir reader and the linkages between various systems. This had not been easily achieved, and would not have been possible without the commitment and support of external partners. There have been great learning’s along the way and significant capacity building along the food chain.  

The TAG project has also to date been utilised as a valuable resource by various bodies such as Welsh Government in their dealings with Europe over sheep EID (presentation to the FVO mission) and in informing initiatives such as the Working Smarter Group. The reminder of the project time will be spent in further developing the TAG farmers’ use of the system now in place and disseminating the benefits of performance recording in its various guises to the rest of the Welsh sheep industry.