Tagging Study Shows Weakness in Sytem
AUSTRALIA – Studies have highlighted the inefficacy of radio-frequency identification tagging for cattle.
25 March 2013
1 minute read
A trial commissioned by the Australian Beef Association on the efficacy of RFID NLIS Cattle found that 34 per cent of 50,000 head of cattle over 14 property identification codes had lost their whole life traceability.
A year by year description on the data showed that the accuracy level continued to drop as time progressed.
These findings are consistent with the Price Waterhouse Coopers report commissioned by the Federal Government ,that admitted that the number of cattle that had lost Whole Of Life Traceability was considerable and that the problem would snowball over time.
With now over 130 million tags on the cattle database the direct costs to producers in tags and reading charges alone is close to 3/4 of a billion dollars, the association has said they have been sold a ‘very expensive lemon’.
TheCattleSite News Desk
