$14,000 fine for not registering 295 deer
A farmer who failed to register 295 deer into the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) scheme has been fined $13,750.
FARMERS WILL need to use different NAIT tags from the middle of next year, says NAIT.
It announced recently that the tracker tags used mostly for surplus stock will not be on sale beyond from July 1, 2015.
The three-year transition period allowed for all beef and deer to be registered ends mid 2015. NAIT is signaling a number of changes, including the replacement of the ‘transitional’ tracker tags with birth and replacement tags.
NAIT technical advisor Dan Schofield says while tracker tags will be withdrawn from sale, farmers may continue using their remaining stocks.
He says the shift in tags shouldn’t come as a surprise; they were intended as temporary and often ‘challenged’ farmers manually registering numbers on the NAIT system. “Farmers have told us the tracker tags are cumbersome to use, the numbers are too long and they’re too hard to read. “They were only developed as a temporary measure to get cows from the farm to the works or the saleyards.”
Schofield says new birth and replacement tags will help farmers to record every animal in the NAIT tracking system. They may choose between including a yearly code or running a simple sequential numbering system, which will make things easy for herd records.
Schofield says new tags signal a shift in management with the organisation moving from an educational role into a managerial one.
The organisation will increase the number of farm visits in 2015, where Schofield says they will work with farmers to get records up to standards.
Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford is claiming “some real success” on the 12 policy priorities it placed before the Coalition Government.
Federated Farmers is throwing its support behind the Fast-track Approvals Bill introduced by the Coalition Government to enable a fast-track decision-making process for infrastructure and development projects.
The latest report from ANZ isn’t good news for sheep farmers: lamb returns are forecast to remain low.
Divine table grapes that herald the start of a brand-new industry in Hawke’s Bay have been coming off vines in Maraekakaho.
In what appears to be a casualty of the downturn in the agricultural sector, a well-known machinery brand is now in the hands of liquidators and owing creditors $6.6 million.
One of New Zealand’s deepest breeder Jersey herds – known for its enduring connection through cattle with the UK’s longest reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II – will host its 75th anniversary celebration sale on-farm on April 22.