Why sheep EID: technology to benefit the NZ sheep farmer or not?

Abstract

The sheep industry, while largely depressed over the last few years of the last decade, has seen resurgence in the last twelve months and remains an integral part of New Zealand's agricultural and National economy. Farmers must take advantage of current improved prices by improving productivity, becoming more efficient and remain competitive to ensure the sustainability of the industry in years to come. One way to improve efficiencies and productivity is to take up new technology with proven benefits. One such technology not necessarily proven but with limited and increasing uptake available to farmers for just over a decade now is Electronic identification (EID). EID is also known as Radio frequency identification (RFID) but for the purpose of this project I will refer to just EID.