Return on investment for implementing electronic identification tags in a commercial sheep flock – WA

Summary

To effectively sustain the sheep industry, it is important to equip producers with tools to improve performance through increased production and profitability. One such tool is the electronic identification (elD) tag.

There are a number of benefits that producers implementing eID within their sheep flock can use to identify individual performance of animals, allowing for significant improvements to sheep flock from informed selection decisions and labour savings through ease of management and handling. This report presents the economic benefits of using electronic Identification (eID) tags in a commercial sheep flock.

The benefit cost ratio of implementing electronic identification ranged from $1.23 return for: $ 1invested to $2 return : $1 invested varying based on implementation strategy, enterprise type and size. Also included in the results are the outcomes from a producer survey on the use of eID in Western Australian sheep flocks.