The largest cattle agent at the biggest
saleyards in Australia says the National Livestock Identification System
equipment is not up to scratch and needs to be replaced.
It has been five months since Queensland's
Roma saleyards spent $300,000 upgrading their facilities to cope with the
new electronic ID system .
Elders agent Mick Connell says the equipment
is not scanning tags properly and it is taking up to a third longer to
process cattle.
"I suppose in those big sale days there it
could be another two or three days hold up with cattle that don't go through
the scanners, they've got to go over to the crush to be re-read," he
said.
"It's costing us probably three extra staff
a night to put the cattle through the scanners and deliver them up to the
draft and the company has to absorb the costs at this stage of the
game."
The Roma Saleyard Board has acknowledged the
problems and says it is dealing with them.
Meanwhile the RSPCA says Victoria's saleyard
operators need to make major improvements to their animal welfare
management.
The society is concluding an investigation
into Ballarat saleyard, following public complaints.
It says it is satisfied Ballarat Council has
addressed many of the issues raised, including overcrowding of pens, injured
animals left unattended, and animals left outside for long periods of time
in extreme weather.
But the Victorian RSPCA's senior inspector,
Ken Waixel is still concerned about other yards.
"Ballarat saleyards are no different to any
others in fact they're most probably a bit more proactive, once we've
identified the issues with them, in dealing with them," he
said.
"There's no one that stands out. We actually
carry out inspections of a number of saleyards. We do inspections of some
more often than others because of the history of those
saleyards."
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