NAIT is primarily a data recording and collection system. Cattle and deer will be identified with electronic ear tags that have unique identifiers. Specific information related mainly to individual animal movements will be collected and held on a central database.     

Cattle and deer are the first focus of NAIT because they are already included in mandatory animal identification schemes under the National Bovine Tuberculosis Pest Management Strategy.

However, to manage biosecurity risks, it is important to create a system that enables the tracing of other species. The system will be designed to allow other livestock sectors to be added when and as appropriate. 

NAIT will safeguard farmers’ incomes by protecting New Zealand’s excellent animal health and food safety reputation in overseas markets, meeting growing consumer expectations for traceable food products and by enhancing biosecurity.

 New Zealand’s current animal tracing capability is insufficient to manage a major livestock disease outbreak. NAIT will enable the location of cattle and deer to be traced much faster than existing manual systems, and will provide more reliable and up-to-date information on animal movements. This will improve biosecurity surveillance and response efficiency.

New Zealand faces losing access to, or share of, premium markets if it cannot offer commercial assurances that its biosecurity systems are supported by whole-of-life traceability.There is high likelihood that lifetime traceability of livestock will be a condition for commercial access to markets in the future. Many of New Zealand’s major trading partners have already adopted such systems.     

This trend is supported by the OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health), which has called for progressive implementation of animal identification and traceability systems worldwide.

New Zealand is lagging behind its trading competitors in adopting lifetime traceability of livestock. Our competitors are poised to benefit at New Zealand’s expense if we do not take steps to improve animal identification and tracing in this country.

NAIT will also help New Zealand demonstrate to trading partners that all potentially infected animals during a disease outbreak have been contained. For example, New Zealand would be able to assure importers that an outbreak had been isolated to a particular location or region.

The quicker New Zealand can provide such assurance, the quicker it will enable the lifting of any trade restrictions imposed as a result of an outbreak.

New Zealand has a number of animal identification systems that are fine for their own purposes, such as controlling bovine tuberculosis. However, it is clear that these systems will not meet New Zealand’s requirements for animal identification and tracing in the future. Some rely on paper-based records. Many operate at a herd rather than an individual animal level. Data cannot be shared. Furthermore, current systems do not hold all the required information to facilitate animal tracing and identification on a national basis.  

NAIT tags will be incorporated into other official animal identification schemes. The intention is that the NAIT ear tag will initially replace the existing secondary tag under existing schemes. The aim is to move to a single tag for all official purposes in the medium-term.

 NAIT provides insurance to protect the future viability of every farming business involving NAIT species. While the benefits may not appear year after year as a cash return, NAIT will protect New Zealand farmers from some of the major consequences of a biosecurity incident. It will also protect access to higher-value markets.

The NAIT Governance Group has worked hard to ensure that costs are as low as possible, for example, by exploring running the system through an existing organisation rather than as a stand-alone entity. It has introduced an exemption period for capital stock that will make it easier for farmers to transition to the new system. It has also simplified the obligations for organisers of agricultural shows. Furthermore, it has ensured that personal information held by NAIT will be protected by strict rules.     

There will be legal protections in place to ensure that use of information in NAIT conforms with the principles of the Privacy Act. In addition, any access, use or disclosure of NAIT data will be limited to stated purposes in the NAIT legislation.

A Select Committee process will provide additional opportunity for interested parties to have their say about how NAIT data can be used.

Industry stakeholders have been involved in the development of NAIT since the beginning of the project. An industry discussion document on enhancing animal tracing systems in New Zealand was released in 2004. This was followed in June 2008 by the release of a public consultation document, which provided interested parties the opportunity to comment on the proposed design.

In addition to formal consultation, the project has obtained stakeholder feedback from: 

·          A programme of face-to-face engagement with farmers and industry organisations, including public meetings, presentations and attendance at agricultural shows and other public events.

·          An independent market survey to gauge the level of support among farmers.

There is currently a high level of support/acceptance for the project among farmers, based on the results of a comprehensive stakeholder engagement and communications programme. An independent farmer survey undertaken in early 2009 showed that, on average, farmers are supportive of a mandatory traceability system, with a far greater number expressing support (58%) than those against it (17%).

Radio frequency identification devices (or RFIDs) are electronic tags that emit radio signals that can be read by special readers, therefore eliminating the need for manual data entry. The RFID tags used by NAIT will contain only an identification number. Information about the animal will be stored on a database and linked to the animal’s RFID identification number.

RFID is used in other countries with animal tracing systems.  Under NAIT, RFID will be introduced via existing official animal identification schemes and will become regulated for cattle by 2011, with deer expected to follow a year later.

NAIT's position is to go with technology that is already in use overseas, meets international guidelines and is widely available. In short, NAIT is a technology adopter, not a developer.

Low-frequency RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Device) tagging is recognised internationally as a key foundation technology for comprehensive animal identification and traceability. There have been recent discussions about the relative merits of different frequencies, particularly ultra high-frequency, used in RFID ear tags for individual animal identification.  

NAIT is pleased to see progress with this technology, but at this point cannot endorse it until it is proven and accepted. We remain open to accepting it in the future.

 The Government and industry parties recently endorsed a detailed business case that included a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis.

The Government has agreed to provide funding support to build and operate the new system and to draw up legislation and regulations to make the scheme mandatory for cattle and deer farmers.

An industry-owned NAIT body (a limited liability company) will oversee the delivery phase over 21 months (12 months to build NAIT followed by operational testing of the system). Work will include developing the software application and core IT system, communications, stakeholder liaison and training, delivery of NAIT legislation and regulations, and setting up the governance and day-to-day management functions. 

A new mandatory animal identification and tracing system for cattle is proposed to be in place by late 2011. Deer will follow a year after the introduction of cattle.

Yes. Implementation of the NAIT system is intended to be a staged process. The system will operate initially on a non-mandatory sign-up basis in order to bed down systems and processes until it is regulated in mid-2011.

Once NAIT becomes mandatory, there will be a  three-year exemption for tagging capital stock that does not leave the farm during this time. The exemption will begin at the time of the mandatory introduction of NAIT for each particular species – 2011 for cattle and 2012 for deer. This exemption will make it easier for farmers to transition to the new NAIT system.

Farmers should note that tagging of cattle and deer with NAIT-approved RFID is already possible under existing official tagging schemes. Now that it is clear that NAIT is going ahead, farmers should consider using NAIT-compliant tags on new-born animals. This will avoid the expense of having to retag animals once NAIT becomes a mandatory requirement. 

The on-farm benefits of technology utilising RFID include accurate recording of production details about individual animals and using this data to support management decisions. The uses may include regularly weighing animals to sell at optimum individual weight, tracking treatments, recording breeding information, and measuring milk production. RFID also supports automatic drafting out of animals that meet pre-defined conditions. To gain on farm benefits, farmers will need a further investment in technology (for example, RFID readers and software).

Farmers will need to:

• Ensure all cattle and deer are tagged with a NAIT-approved tag.
• Record all animals onto the NAIT database either themselves or through a third-party.
• Notify NAIT of all farm-to-farm animal movements.

Processors will be required to record the receipt of all cattle and deer into their processing facilities, and provide the date of slaughter and other details for electronic transfer to the NAIT database. Farmers sending animals directly to slaughter will be able to leave recording of the movement details for their animals on NAIT to approved processors.

Saleyards will need to record the receipt and dispatch of all cattle and deer and provide the date of transactions and other details (e.g. ownership transfer and individual animal ID) to the NAIT database. Farmers sending animals to, or purchasing animals at, NAIT-approved saleyards will be able to leave recording of the movement details to the saleyard operator.

Transport operators are expected to have only minimal obligations under the initial rollout of NAIT.  There will be further discussions with the industry to determine what and if anything needs to be done by transporters. To discourage deliberate non-compliant behaviour, it is proposed that it will be an offence to knowingly move an animal that hasn’t been tagged correctly from a property . The general view is that the farmer moving the stock will have primary responsibility for compliance, but that all participants in the livestock industry should contribute to managing risks that are posed by their activities.  

Under the NAIT proposal as it stands, only cattle and deer will be required to be tagged.  The current rules around the identification of animals for bovine Tb purposes, under the MINDA scheme, for imported animals and for HGP-treated animals will continue to apply. NAIT will set some additional new requirements:

• All cattle and deer will have to be tagged with a NAIT-approved tag (this tag can meet secondary tag requirements of current official schemes).
• The animals must be tagged within 180 days of their birth, or at the time of first contact with the animal (whichever comes first).
• The animals must be tagged prior to the animal’s first movement regardless of age. The only planned exception is for calves less than 30-days-old going directly to slaughter.

NAIT will only work if the information held on it remains reliable and as complete and current as possible. To maintain high quality data, a number of features and requirements have been built into the NAIT design, including:

• Using existing credible data sources to reduce additional administrative burden.
• Making it a legal requirement for the submission of data within defined time periods.
• Keeping processes for farmers as similar as possible to those currently used.
• Providing a range of methods for uploading data.
• Keeping the costs of uploading data low.
• Use of technology to automate animal recording, thus reducing manual error.
• Having functionality built into NAIT so it can be responsive to new needs.
• Providing clear rules and standards for universal adoption, but with some flexibility so those rules can be changed as technology and circumstances change.
• Having validation of data built into processes to manage data quality risks.
• Designing NAIT as an enabling system, to support future information needs.

You will have the same NAIT obligations as for other owners/persons in charge of larger herds. It is anticipated that service providers (stock and station agents, transport operators, etc) may offer services that include the meeting of NAIT requirements. A group of small-block holders might also consider sharing equipment to meet NAIT requirements.

Under a voluntary system, identification and movement information about cattle and deer nationwide would be incomplete and less accurate compared with a mandatory system. The end result would be higher costs and a slower response in the event of a biosecurity outbreak. This in turn would cause a slower return to market post-response and therefore a far higher impact on overall costs to the industry. A voluntary system would also lack credibility among key trading partners. 

Yes.  A conservative cost-benefit analysis has been completed in accordance with Treasury guidelines. It assesses the NAIT system would generate annualised benefits of around $38 million per year.

New Zealand faces huge costs if it fails to meet international expectations for animal identification and tracing. The experiences of Brazil illustrate this point. The European Union banned Brazilian beef imports in February 2008 due to deficiencies in Brazil’s tracing systems. Within a matter of weeks, the cost of the export ban had risen to US$300 million.   

In 2001, a Reserve Bank/Treasury study calculated the cost of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak to be $6.1 billion, rising to $10.65 billion over two years.  While NAIT would not reduce the likelihood of occurrence of this disease, it would reduce the impact by 4 to 10 percent, according to estimates from MAF Biosecurity New Zealand. 

The development of the core NAIT system will require capital expenditure of up to a maximum of $7.02 million and operating expenditure of $8.67 million. The stage two business case, however, has identified further possible savings that will be explored as development proceeds. The Government has agreed to fully fund the capital cost and to cover the majority of the operational funding for the development period.

Annual operating costs of the core NAIT system once it is up and running will be around $6 million, which will be funded by a mixture of Crown funding and new levy contributions from cattle and deer farmers.  The expectation is that the levies will amount to around $1 per animal each year.

Yes. The other main cost will be electronic ear tags. The tag cost per animal will be around $2 or $3 more than what farmers are paying at the moment for non-electronic ear tags.

Saleyards (including stock and station agents who act on behalf of farmers) and processors will have to invest in tag readers to record individual animals entering their premises. In addition, they may need to modify their premises and amend their processes and management systems.

One-off costs for New Zealand’s 45 processors to set up for NAIT are estimated to be $1.2 million in total. For New Zealand’s saleyards and stock and station agents, set-up costs will be an estimated $6 million in total. Annual costs for saleyards and processors are estimated to be $1.3 million and $0.25 million respectively.