I have already signalled, in the House and elsewhere, my intention to introduce without delay a comprehensive identification system for sheep, based on the individual identification of all sheep by tagging. This system will be called the National Sheep identification System, NSIS. My Department has virtually completed all the required preparatory work on this project and NSIS will go live and be operational nationally within the next few weeks. A full information pack on the detailed operation of NSIS will issue to farmers within the next week or so. I anticipate all elements of NSIS being in place within the current month, with a date in early June being specified as the date after which it will be illegal to trade in untagged sheep.
Eight companies have been approved to supply tags to farmers. The process of ordering tags will be a very simple one for farmers and will involve a computer-based interaction between each supplier and the Department, whereby herd or flock numbers will be validated, numerical sequences of tags assigned and data on individual orders captured for monitoring purposes.