Six years of lobbying by the Cattle Council of Australia has finally paid off after the Federal Government last week removed a requirement for tail-tags on cattle destined for processing for the European Union (EU) market.

The Federal Government said its removal of the regulation will now save producers around $1 million a year, but the reality is that saving should have been achieved more than half a decade ago.

The CCA and the Red Meat Advisory Council have been lobbying for the removal of unnecessary red tape for access to the EU market since June 2008.

CCA spokesperson for marketing and market access, Marc Greening, said he was glad to see common sense had finally prevailed with the announcement to remove the tail tag requirement entirely.

“NLIS clearly demonstrates traceability that the EU market requires, the tail tag was simply unnecessary,” Mr Greening said.

Mr Greening, an EU backgrounder and finisher who supplies around 2000 head to the market annually, said it was a clear example of how removal of unnecessary protocol will provide broader benefits to the supply chain.

“Apart from the obvious saving in the cost of the tags it will also reduce labour and will enable better animal management prior to trucking.

“Tail tag retention was so unreliable tags had to be applied just prior to trucking.”

“With that taken out I can certainly manage animal stress levels much better. This helps from a shrinkage point of view and carcase quality aspect.”

“This is a clear example of how the cattle industry requires effective advocacy groups like CCA to work away on marker access issues like this.”

The announcement means that from September 1 – last Monday – Australian producers are no longer required to use special lime-green tags on the tails of cattle produced for processing into beef exported to the EU.