West Coast farmer Andrew Stewart believes the key to animal traceability is to keep your National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) account regularly updated.

It's crunch time for dairy and beef farmers as they decide how much the two sectors will pay, respectively, toward cleaning up the cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis, likely to cost $870 million over 10 years. 

Beef + Lamb NZ and DairyNZ are working through the cost-sharing process for the industry share of eradicating Mycoplasma bovis, says BLNZ general manager policy and advocacy Dave Harrison.

Farming has been under the microscope this month with three heavyweight Government reports — on water quality, climate change and Mycoplasma bovis — all appearing in just three days.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor have announced a recovery package to help farmers get back to business more quickly after being cleared of Mycoplasma bovis.

Farmers selling cattle have a duty to disclose if the animals have been under Mycoplasma bovis testing, says Dairy Holdings chief executive Colin Glass.

A seminar in Hamilton later this month hopes to rebuild and strengthen the New Zealand cattle industry in the wake of Mycoplasma Bovis (M. bovis).

Minister for Biosecurity Damien O’Connor wants every New Zealander to help build a biosecurity team of 4.7 million as part of the Ko Tātou This Is Us campaign. 

More than half of sheep and beef farmers have made changes to reduce the risk of their stock becoming infected by Mycoplasma bovis (M. bovis).

The country’s biggest annual A&P show will go ahead with cattle classes this year despite the threat of spreading Mycoplasma bovis.