Landowners and rural business owners in England and Scotland are demanding that the Government scrap he latest tangle of red tape coming from the EU – the compulsory electronic tagging of sheep.

Such tagging would immensely increase the workload of sheep farmers – and particularly hill farmers in areas like the Yorkshire Dales – and would also call for the investment in new electronic equipment.

The Country Land and Business Association (the CLA) and its Scottish sister organisation, the SRPBA, have prepared a detailed report on the costs of such a plan which they are sending to all MPs, members of the Scottish Parliament and MEPs in Brussels.

CLA Yorkshire Regional Director Dorothy Fairburn said: “Farmers today are consistently faced with new legislation that is sapping their already low income and in some cases preventing them from doing their jobs. “In the case of EID, as we have outlined in the paper, the benefits are unproven and more to the point - the industry simply cannot afford it.

“The recommendation of both the CLA and SRPBA is that the Commission should scrap the proposals altogether or, if it is considered vital to public health, to fund the scheme in its entirety.”