Farmers urged not to be complacent about TB
New Zealand's TBfree programme has made great progress in reducing the impact of the disease on livestock herds, but there’s still a long way to go, according to Beef+Lamb NZ.
With Gypsy Day fast approaching OSPRI offers advice for NAIT and TBfree.
To ensure you meet your NAIT and TBfree programme obligations follow these steps when moving or selling stock this Gypsy Day.
• Update your contact details with OSPRI and record your stock movements.
• Check the TB status and testing requirements of the area into which you're moving cattle.
• Correctly complete an animal status declaration (ASD) form when shifting stock and do not accept any animals onto a farm if they're not accompanied by a correctly filled-out ASD form.
• Make sure that stock shifting from a movement control area have a pre-movement TB test within 60 days.
"We know that Gypsy day is a busy time of the year but it is important that farmers understand and meet both their NAIT and TBfree programme obligations," says OSPRI chief executive Michelle Edge.
NAIT data is used to trace the movements of potentially infected stock, both on and off farm, so the source of the disease can be identified and special TB testing programmes established to contain the infection.
As long as contact details and location are up to date, OSPRI can call when the herd is due for a TB test. Updating details is quick and easy and is crucial for keeping TB under control.
For help with all of these steps, call OSPRI on 0800 482 463.
Rollovers of quad bikes or ATVs towing calf milk trailers have typically prompted a Safety Alert from Safer Farms, the industry-led organisation dedicated to fostering a safer farming culture across New Zealand.
The Government has announced it has invested $8 million in lower methane dairy genetics research.
A group of Kiwi farmers are urging Alliance farmer-shareholders to vote against a deal that would see the red meat co-operative sell approximately $270 million in shares to Ireland's Dawn Meats.
In a few hundred words it's impossible to adequately describe the outstanding contribution that James Brendan Bolger made to New Zealand since he first entered politics in 1972.
Dawn Meats is set to increase its proposed investment in Alliance Group by up to $25 million following stronger than forecast year-end results by Alliance.
A day after the ouster of PGG Wrightson’s chair and his deputy, the listed rural trader’s board has appointed John Nichol as the new independent chair.
OPINION: Voting is underway for Fonterra’s divestment proposal, with shareholders deciding whether or not sell its consumer brands business.
OPINION: Politicians and Wellington bureaucrats should take a leaf out of the book of Canterbury District Police Commander Superintendent Tony Hill.