Hi GM,

I never suggested that you were a conspiracist - you obviously think I'm a naive fool - perhaps so? I'll try to respond to some of your comments/questions anyhow.

There has been a lot of resistance and negativity about NLIS in Australia. The costs associated with setting it up have been large, particularly for the saleyards, who have had to install the scanners to read the tags. However, now that the system is in place, it has led to increased efficiency at the yards. Whereas previously earmarks had to be checked to verify the ownership of an animal, now it's as simple as waving a hand-held wand or having the animal walk through a scanner.

For larger producers, this could streamline their operation at home too. Instead of having to write numbers of animals down as you work them through the yards, you scan them. For each unique number, you could also have additional information about what they require - nutritionally or medicinally, for example. 

This is not of benefit to us - our numbers are too small to justify the purchase of a $500 scanner. We also know all of our cows and calves by sight. However, we've seen this operating at a dairy. The cows have computer chips around their necks in this case (not NLIS). As they enter the dairy, their number is scanned and that then dictates how much feed and the composition of feed the individual animal receives. The more milk they produce, the more feed they are given. After they have been milked, their number is again used to draft them into different paddocks - gates will open to direct them one way or the other.

Our farm is very small by Australian standards. We have 200 acres on which we run around 30 breeders. We are slightly different to other beef producers in that we operate a stud or pedigree herd. We breed  bulls to sell as stud and commercial sires for other people to put over their cows. We retain our female calves to be future breeders. This means that fewer of our animals get sent for meat (a positive for me as I get very attached to them all), but also that we run smaller numbers of breeders, as we have to keep each calving group for 2 years. We have anywhere from 65-80 animals here at any one time, although we did have over 100 at one stage...

I can't agree with your statement that NLIS is all extra cost with no health and safety benefits. If the system works as it should, outbreaks of disease will be contained much more rapidly than before and the economic and social advantages of that happening are huge. The export market for beef in Australia is very large - mostly to the Asian region. You mention trading between the US and Australia - that is a very small proportion of our exports, mostly due to the protection subsidies/tarriffs provided to your farmers. The Free Trade Agreement doesn't seem to extend to these protected markets...

Having read what you believe your NAIS will be like, it seems much more wide-reaching than ours. Perhaps we're not comparing apples with apples? If a farmer owns several properties within a specific area, he is free to move cattle between properties without having to notify the authorities. I don't think that the NLIS applies to other species - certainly not birds and fish - just cattle, sheep and maybe pigs and goats - not sure! Vets here encourage microchipping of cats and dogs - to help reunite lost pets with their owners, but I don't believe there are sinister overtones to that?

NLIS is compulsory here. There's not much point having a tracing system in place if only half the animals can be tracked. We were warned that it was coming and many workshops were held about the implementation of the system.

As to the inspection of premises, that can happen anyway. There are Farmsafe and Worksafe inspectors that are able to visit anytime, although usually you are forewarned. I know it's just another level of control and none of us like to be told what to do or how to run our businesses, but again, perhaps it's for the general good? With Farmsafe, the inspectors are checking things such as chemical storage, safety devices such as roll bars on tractors and other guards on machinery. When you read about the number of accidents on farms, is this such a bad thing?

One last thing - where are people still feeding untreated cattle byproducts to other animals? I would be most surprised given the amount of media coverage the outbreak of BSE had. What happened in UK and Europe was catastrophic - I'm with you there. As stud breeders, we knew of people over there who lost generations of selective breeding. It would be hard to imagine how devastated we would be if someone came and told us all of our girls had to be destroyed. However, if nothing was done, then the beef market and hence the farmer's livelihoods were shot anyway. Who is going to eat something that may eventually lead to their premature death (not that I'm totally convinced of the link between BSE and CJD)?

Anyway, that's my perspective on the NLIS. As I said, your system may differ from ours, but I'm happy to have it in place here.