Under new legislation, sheep born after January 1 require electronic tags, while saleyards are required to start scanning tags from March 31. 

Horsham Regional Livestock Exchange manager Paul Christopher said agents were doing trials to familiarise themselves with the scanning software and hardware.

He said that involved using tablets and the procedures around the capture of data.

New equipment including scanners to be installed post draft in the saleyards’s four drafting races at Horsham had also been ordered.

The scanning equipment will ensure that sheep and lambs will only be scanned once and enable pre-sale check lists to be printed out if needed. Yarriambiack Shire is also working towards upgrading software at its Warracknabeal Regional Livestock Exchange.

Council infrastructure services manager Bernie Naylor said works were progressing with the supply and installation of scanning hardware into the drafting races at the town's saleyards.

"Many software companies have only just discovered the livestock industry and are very interested in designing various packages to suit so there is an advantage in staying with what we know works until a product that is proven to be better comes along," he said.

Mr Naylor said once the hardware and software had been installed and was operational, training would be provided to all users.