Hundreds of cattle keepers are breathing a sigh of relief after the Scottish Government confirmed they would not need to remove 20,000 UHF pink primary tags from cattle’s ears.

Following news that it is now illegal to use pink UHF tags as the primary tag, many farmers were concerned they would need to re-tag animals. However, a Scottish Government spokesperson confirmed this week: “There is currently no need to remove and replace such tags if they contain the required information, and are used in a manner that is consistent with the current legislative requirements.”

Following a change to the new GB-wide Tag Allocation System (LUIS) farmers can no longer order pink UHF EID primary tags but can still order them as secondary tags. The previous Tag Allocation System (ETAS) had permitted EID pink tags as the official primary tag following PAS44 accreditation in 2022.

Last year, around 20,000 primary pink UHF tags were sold in good faith by tag suppliers to Scottish farmers. Meanwhile, there are around 100,000 pink UHF EID secondary tags issued so far.

The new rules means that farmers looking to run a UHF system must use the pink tag for the secondary tag which rules out the option of a metal ‘Ketchum’ tag.

The voluntary uptake of pink UHF tags is part of the much-delayed switch to an electronic cattle tag system in Scotland. Pink tags are in place on more than 400 holdings across Scotland with the colour chosen so that EID tags could be easily spotted in cattle. Readers have already been installed in most Scottish markets and abattoirs with over 250,000 unique reads recorded so far.

There is yet to be a firm date for when EID tags will be made compulsory for newborn calves with any move also likely to coincide with cattle passports being removed from cross compliance inspections. Some in the industry had suggested it could start in 2024, but with so many years of delay, scepticism remains.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Scottish Government is supporting a voluntary pilot on the use of UHF cattle tags for use in Scotland. We have not yet taken any decisions around the compulsory use of UHF electronic tags, while we consider a range of issues.

“As part of the pilot, UHF WYSIWYG [what you see is what you get] pink tags are available for use as secondary tags to give farmers the benefit using UHF technology and to allow collection of evidence to support further rollout.

“We understand that a number of keepers have also been able to purchase UHF tags for use as primary tags. We are considering future policy development in this area.”