Taranaki farmer fined $15,000 for illegal NAIT tag swapping
A Taranaki farmer and livestock agent who illegally swapped NAIT tags from cows infected with a bovine disease in an attempt to sell the cows has been fined $15,000.
NAIT Ltd chief executive Russell Burnard said the NAIT scheme will provide traceability of individual cattle and deer. This will enhance New Zealand’s ability to respond quickly to a food safety scare or a biosecurity threat, and give added confidence to trading partners. Deer join the scheme on 1 March 2013.
“We are pleased with the response from farmers and industry to date. The number of registrations shows a lot of people want to be ready to go from day one. We expect this will continue to rise as people register before moving animals,” Burnard said.
From Sunday (1 July), farmers and industry participants have to adopt new processes. To enable animals to be traced, people in charge of cattle need to register with NAIT, tag and register their stock, and record when animals move off-farm.
“This behaviour change will take time to achieve. The introduction of cattle to the scheme on 1 July marks the beginning of a three-year transition period and we are committed to working with farmers and industry to help them meet their NAIT obligations,” Burnard said.
The NAIT scheme links individual animals to the person responsible for them, and their current location via the animal’s radio frequency identification device (RFID) ear tag and a central database. As a web-based scheme it will enable animal movement information to be updated and accessed much quicker than the current paper-based system.
“NAIT has worked with industry groups and its shareholders (Beef+Lamb New Zealand, DairyNZ, and Deer Industry New Zealand) to implement a practical and reasonable scheme that utilises existing sector infrastructure.
“We will continue to listen to sector feedback to ensure the scheme works as intended and farmers understand their obligations,” Burnard said.
