The Farmers’ Union of Wales remains strongly opposed to the controversial introduction next year of electronic identification (EID) of sheep, the union’s president said today.

"We oppose this legislation and are committed to fighting it until the bitter end," Gareth Vaughan told county delegates during the union’s quarterly grand council meeting in Aberystwyth.

He said among the many topics of conversation throughout Wales’ rural communities, the subject of sheep EID was top of the agenda. "It is the one subject that is guaranteed to get our blood pressure up.

"And this message was recently made clear by the chairman of the union’s hill farming committee at a recent meeting with top officials from the European Commission and the Joint Research Council.

"However, unlike other farming organisations I do not intend to raise expectations unnecessarily on this issue. Our chances of winning a reprieve grow ever dimmer and, with January 2010 rapidly approaching, we must face up to the possibility that we will not receive the support from other Member States that is needed to reverse the decision.

"The crux of the matter is that we have been successful in persuading the Rural Affairs Minister in Cardiff that this law is impractical, and we have also persuaded Defra Minister Hilary Benn not to support EID.

"But unless Ministers from other EU countries start to recognise these concerns, there is nothing further our own governments can do.

"Nothing short of a massive U-turn by the majority of the EU's 27 Agriculture Ministers will stop this legislation coming in next year, and we therefore need to start thinking about how we will cope if the battle is lost.

"We have already won a two-year delay, and concessions that would make the legislation far less burdensome, and following tough negotiations with the Commission, there may be some more commonsense in the pipeline.

"I therefore say again, that we do not intend to give up our fight - but we will not mislead our members and give them false hope. Burying our heads in the sand, as other organisations are doing, is simply not an option - if we did that we would be failing our members."

ASSEMBLY Heritage Minister Alun Ffred Jones will be given a demonstration of the controversial sheep and goats’ electronic identification (EID) technology on Friday, February 13 on a farm at Saron, Llanwnda, near Caernarfon.

Farmers’ Union of Wales member Huw Jones' farm, Pengwern, is one of 14 farms taking part in a joint Hybu Cig Cymru-Welsh Assembly Government pilot trial into the feasibility of introducing EID to the Welsh sheep industry.

"I have been trialing the EID technology for the past 12 months and I am convinced the system is totally unworkable after 20 per cent of my flock lost their tags," said Huw Jones.

"I have spent a considerable amount of time trying to get the technology to work for me on my farm and I found that although the electronic hand-held reader reads the tags relatively well, using this type of equipment is a lengthy process and is unpractical to say the least.

"The electronic race-reader is much better in theory but in practice I found it very unreliable. I recently brought 150 ewes down from the mountain and put them through the race and the reader only recorded 108 ewes.

"Such unreliability is just not good enough. I have no doubt that the technology is not sufficiently developed to be practical for the average Welsh flock."

Alun Ffred Jones, Arfon’s Plaid Cymru AM, said: "I’m aware of the concerns regarding the EID tagging scheme and that many see it as unnecessary and expensive bureaucracy. I look forward to discussing the matter and listening to suggestions from people within the industry who will have to deal with the repercussions of the scheme’s implementation."

The visit, arranged by FUW’s Caernarfon county executive officer Gwynedd Watkin, will give the Minister the opportunity to see the technology at work at first hand.

Mr Watkin said: "The policy of EID for sheep has not been thought through properly and could ruin the financial viability of the industry.

"The technology used for EID is temperamental to say the least, even the slightest hitch with the technology could bring a livestock market or abattoir to a standstill, with major financial consequences for all concerned.

"I have invited John Lloyd Williams of Bryncir Agricultural Auction Centre and Gren Jones of Conwy Valley Meats to be present at the meeting so that the Minister can hear the concerns from all aspects of the industry."

The Welsh farming industry’s objections to the compulsory electronic identification (EID) of sheep were today made clear to the European Commission by Farmers’ Union of Wales hill farming committee chairman Derek Morgan.

Mr Morgan’s comments were made during a meeting with EC officials in Llandovery, Carmarthenshire, organised by the Welsh Assembly Government.

Speaking after the meeting, the Llangurig sheep farmer said: "Unlike most farmers I have first hand experience of EID, having used it on a small proportion of my Welsh Mountain sheep for the past six years.

"In my six years experience, I have found that the technology is not sufficiently developed to be practical for the average Welsh flock and, even when dealing with a small number of sheep that are electronically identified, we are forced to manually record information on paper due to reliability issues with the technology.

"It’s all very well using it to record and monitor a small specialist flock, but scaling its use up for every sheep in the country is madness."

Mr Morgan also emphasised the particular problems that the Regulation would bring for Welsh businesses, highlighting the fact that 80% of Wales comprises Less Favoured land, and that Welsh farms are therefore dependent upon moving animals from the mountains into the lowlands for wintering.

"This means that Wales, out of necessity, has a particularly high number of movements which, in turn, means that we will have to invest more heavily in the technology than in other countries."

Throughout today the Commission heard a range of concerns regarding the impact of the technology on the entire sheep industry during meetings with farmers, abattoirs and livestock auctioneers.

"There are serious concerns regarding the impact that compulsory EID will have for the entire supply chain," added Mr Morgan. "Even the slightest hitch with the technology could bring a livestock market or abattoir to a standstill, with major financial consequences for all concerned.

"As upland farmers, we are particularly reliant on the market system in terms of selling animals to finishers from the lowlands and I am extremely concerned that the cost of implementing the Regulation in markets is likely to be passed on to farmers or result in market closures.

"Market closures would increase the control that the supermarkets have over the supply chain, and that would be extremely bad news for the industry."

Farmers’ Union of Wales president Gareth Vaughan today commended the decision by Pembrokeshire auctioneers J J Morris to cancel a Red Market sale at Whitland.

Mr Vaughan also called on farmers and auctioneers to stand firm against aggressive moves by processors and supermarkets to pass their overheads on to farmers via the auction markets.

The Whitland sale was due to have been held today, and would have involved the sale of some 120 cattle from farms under TB restrictions.

"The cancellation of Wednesday's Red Market at Whitland comes as a huge blow to Welsh farms that are under TB restrictions and had animals booked in to the sale" said Mr Vaughan.

"These businesses need to move animals off their holdings as soon as possible in order to alleviate the huge pressures that accompany TB movement restrictions, and the decision will add significantly to the problems in the area, and could even affect the Welsh Assembly's TB control programme," said Mr Vaughan.

"However, the industry should not give in to this kind of intimidation by supermarkets and abattoirs, and I commend the stance taken by the livestock auctions.

"Moves by abattoirs and supermarkets to levy farmers, whether via the livestock markets or otherwise, should be resisted. If we bow to this it could be the thin edge of the wedge.

"At what point will the auctioneers then be asked to deduct fixed charges to cover water and electricity bills, or other abattoir or supermarket overheads?

"The bottom line is that this is a public health issue, and should either be picked up by government or passed down the chain to supermarkets and other customers."

Mr Vaughan added that he was deeply suspicious about the apparently coordinated way in which the livestock auctioneers had been asked to levy farmers.

"The way in which some appear to have stood together on this issue smacks of collusion. Companies that work together in order to manipulate the market place risk falling foul of the law, and we shall pass on any evidence of such practices to the Office of Fair Trading."

"It is disgraceful that the supermarkets and abattoirs may make the TB situation worse due to tactics that are effectively designed to drive farmgate prices down."