Mart Managers of Ireland (MMI) has called on the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) to “dramatically increase” the grant available to marts to install electronic identification (EID) facilities for cattle.

Under the Cattle EID Livestock Mart Grant Aid Scheme, which opened for applications in January, marts can apply for 40% of the total cost of the eligible upgrades made, up to a maximum total payment of €8,000.

The department said that funding is available only for the upgrading of facilities to electronically read and record the identification details of cattle being traded.

Eligible investments will include the installation or upgrading of wi-fi, electronic reading equipment, software development, hardware purchase and the purchase of tablet computers.

Grant aid will not be given for any other improvements made by applicant marts.

The closing date for receipt of applications is September 30, 2023.

EID

The department introduced mandatory EID of cattle from July 2022.

This means that all bovines born on, or after, July 1, 2022 must be identified with two official identification tags, one of which contains an electronic component.

As reported by Agriland, the DAFM is considering what role, if any, that cattle passports, known by many as ‘blue cards‘, will play in the future of the traceability system.

It is planning to engage with industry stakeholders next year to discuss the possible ending of the requirement for bovine passports.

Marts

Last year, the department and other stakeholders, including MMI, held discussions on the introduction of EID for cattle and the possibility of marts installing scanning facilities and readers to facilitate the reading of the electronic tags.

Chair of MMI, Eimear McGuinness told Agriland that the group made it clear that it was willing to work with the department

“However, it was also made clear that costs of installing such systems would have to be funded,” she said.

“Mart managers across the country will know that one of the biggest outgoings or costs is the constant upgrading of software at the marts.

“With the introduction of online systems to the marts, costs have climbed dramatically to upgrade broadband facilities and software to run these systems.

“These [EID] systems will be no different and the costs will outweigh the advantages,” McGuinness added.

mart EID
Chair of Mart Managers of Ireland (MMI), Eimear McGuinness

Although the department has stated that participation in the scheme is not mandatory for marts, the MMI chair believes that without 100% uptake by the marts, “the process is pointless”.

“Depending on the size of the mart, these systems will be extremely costly to marts with the upgrading of them [required] every few years.

“Marts are certainly willing to install such equipment to facilitate the department, but the marts should not have to fund it as there are limited advantages in doing so for marts.

“I would ask that all marts throughout the country reject this 40% funding proposal on the table and insist that the funding be dramatically increased .

“Again, I would stress that 100% uptake by all marts would be necessary for the exercise to work,” McGuinness said.