Mr Stephenson said it was surprising to see agents, producers and processors all agreeing on the changes.

"The thing that surprised me was the processors were fully behind it as well," he said.

"It came out of the blue, I'm not sure who brought it up but one of the meat buyers over 18 months ago was asking me what I thought about it. I thought it was a good idea and they said they were all behind it.

"We are all walking the same direction which is good, there's none of that 'us and them' that used to go on in the past. It brings us in line with the international standards that have basically been set by New Zealand," he said.

Mr Stephenson said his only concerns were with clarity of the definition and policing of it.

"We all agree with it but it will be the interpretation of what definition is of two permanent incisors in wear is. That's the thing we've got to be really mindful of," he said.

"So say we have a lamb, it's just cutting its teeth and we say 'righto I have another week', you check it again, no major dramas it's not in full wear, but you are doing the wetwork and selling direct and they say 'no these are hoggets'. How are they going to police that?"

"Ninety per cent of the processors are going to do the right thing (the change) takes all those gringos out of the system that were stamping hoggets as lambs."

Mr Stephenson said while the change wouldn't affect market pricing of lambs, it would give producers some extra income.

"It's happened on numerous occasions in the past where as an agent you'll check out a client's lambs and out of 100 in a pen, 50 of them will be hoggets," he said.

"There's a discount on those which is unfortunate and we are talking about mega dollars for live stock and the inputs that go into them, it's a shame to see them discounted.

"That does have a flow-on effect with the money reinvested in the farm and the local community," he said.

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