Risks rise of banks getting access to NAIT-type data when stock is sold at saleyards or to processors; Aussie farmers furious at proposal

Animal tagging is now ubiquitous, and virtually mandatory in New Zealand for beef and deer under the NAIT system.

There is a strong push to extend it to sheep.

It was introduced in New Zealand as a way to monitor animal disease, especially TB, part of a full trace-and-track system.

New Zealand's systems allow tracing of the provenance of almost all meat offered to consumers using EID / NAIT technologies.

It is growing in sophistication.

FarmIQ for example is working to a seven-year programme and progressing six distinct projects (Governance, Market, Database, Genetics, Processing, Farm productivity) - each one adding value to the supply chain. This is an MPI-backed and funded scheme under the PGP program.

The potential for gains begins before livestock are born - by having the right genetics matched with the right on-farm systems. Then capturing information through EID (Electronic Identification) and using processing technology to feed this back to the producer. Finally and critically, it involves matching products to markets.

But there is suddenly a looming downside that may undermine the trust being built up through these programs.

Banks are showing real interest in getting access to this information.

The fault line has opened in Australia.

Reports there say farmers there are outraged at proposals by Meat and Livestock Australia to covertly sell to banks and other rural lending institutions private information.

A consultant's report commissioned by the MLA - and leaked to the Australian Beef Association - says 10 financial institutions are keen to pay to automatically receive emails informing them every time a farmer who has a mortgage or debt sells his stock through the saleyards or to a meat processor.

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The scheme, which the ABA likens to "spying for profit", is made possible by the tracking of electronic eartags, which are now mandatory from birth for all cattle in all states, from farm to meatworks, under a scheme administered by the MLA.

ABA director Brad Bellinger said yesterday farmers were furious and alarmed that the meat authority they fund through producer levies was considering using the hi-tech, eartag-based National Livestock Identification System - supposedly introduced to minimise disease spread and maximise trade opportunities - to pass on their private financial transactions to banks.

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"I can't believe they would even consider passing information from these ID tags about stock movements and sales in to banks," Mr Shovelton said.

"That would seem a complete breach of privacy . . . to do that without (the farmer's) permission. It would be interesting to know who that information actually belongs to."

MLA spokeswoman Belinda Roseby said the concept of sending information from eartags to third parties remained a proposal under consideration and had not yet been activated.

She said automatic emails would only ever be sent to banks or financial institutions informing them of stock sales, if the producer had first given permission.

Mr Shovelton uses the tags - which can relay and collate information about sheep weight, wool quality and lambing ability on a farm back to a computer - along with an electronic reader and automatic drafting gate to select the best sheep to keep and mate.

"It's not that expensive or that difficult to do; it's labour saving, and the productivity benefits are really there," he said from his Creighton Creek farm in northeast Victoria.

Local farmers have long struggled with the additional costs of mandatorily fitting of all 70 million sheep and 28 million cattle in Australia with the electronic identification tags, estimated at $50m a year for cattle producers now, and between $25m and $45m for sheep.

The ABA's Mr Bellinger said sheep and woolgrowers should be doubly wary after the revelation that their private financial information about stock sold from their farms could be passed on, possibly to Centrelink and the Australian Taxation Office.

He believes the banks want to know every time a farmer who holds a debt or overdraft with an institution sells stock so they can claim first creditor rights to the income ahead of other rural suppliers, such as stock agents like Elders, with whom the farmer might have an account in the red after purchasing stock feed, chemicals and fertiliser.

"This is an outrageous breach of trust by the MLA," Mr Bellinger said, who likened the plans to "Big Brother" electronic surveillance.

"MLA's deployment of this spying system - which for all we know could already be happening - for their own profit is little more than commercial treachery; its secrecy and deceitfulness in this matter is shameful.”