What you need to do for NAIT
13 October 2011
Once NAIT is mandatory, your NAIT obligations will be to:
- tag your cattle or deer with NAIT-approved RFID ear tags – you can do this now
- get your NAIT number by registering yourself and your farm or property with NAIT – you can do this from February 2012
- register your cattle or deer with NAIT – you can do this from mid-2012
- record all movements of cattle or deer, off or onto your farm or property, with NAIT – you can do this from July 2012
- record all deaths, losses or exports of live cattle or deer with NAIT - you can start doing this from July 2012.
The NAIT number, cattle and deer registration and animal movement recording are key pieces of information needed for the NAIT scheme. They will link people, property and animals to ensure lifetime identification and traceability of cattle or deer for biosecurity and animal health purposes.
Get ready for NAIT becoming mandatory
We are expecting the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) legislation to be passed in early 2012. Once this has happened, NAIT obligations for cattle will be mandatory from 1 July 2012 and for deer, from 1 March 2013.
To prepare for NAIT becoming mandatory, we encourage you to tag your cattle and newborn deer now with a NAIT-approved Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) ear tag. You are currently able to buy NAIT-approved RFID ear tags from your usual rural services supplier.
Click here for more information on how to apply NAIT-approved RFID ear tags.
To view the latest tagging rules for cattle, click here.
From early next year, you will be able to get your NAIT number by registering yourself and your farm or property with NAIT.
We will let you know in good time when you can registering yourself and your farm or property with NAIT and start carrying out your other obligations.
To keep up to date with what you need to do to prepare for NAIT, sign-up for our email newsletter NAIT e-News.
Click here to sign-up for NAIT e-News.
Your NAIT Obligations
NAIT-approved Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) ear tags
If you are in charge of cattle or deer, you need to tag your animals with NAIT-approved RFID ear tags. The unique 16-digit identification numbers held in each NAIT-approved RFID ear tag is fundamental to the integrity of New Zealand’s national animal identification and tracing (NAIT) scheme.
Once mandatory, the NAIT system will keep a record of these 16-digit identification numbers, together with information about the animal in which the tag is fitted.
NAIT number
If you are in charge of cattle or deer, you need to register yourself and your farm or property with NAIT to get your NAIT number. If you have responsibility for animals at more than one location, you may have more than one NAIT number. You will be able to register yourself and your property online via NAIT’s website or by telephoning NAIT Limited.
Animal registration
If you are in charge of cattle or deer, you will need to register your animals with NAIT. The information you will need to register for each animal will the be the 16-digit NAIT-approved RFID ear tag number belonging to that animal, the location of the animal’s birth (if known) and the animal’s birth date (the year will be mandatory). You will be able to register your animals online via NAIT’s website or by telephoning NAIT Limited.
Animal movements
If you are in charge of cattle or deer, you will need to inform NAIT any time you move them off your farm or property, unless they are to a NAIT-accredited meat processor or a NAIT-accredited sale yard. Each time you record an off-farm movement of your cattle and deer with NAIT, you will need to supply your NAIT number (and that of the person in charge of receiving the animals), the 16-digit NAIT-approved RFID ear tag number, and the date of commencement and completion of the animal movement. You will also need to report to NAIT any cattle or deer you receive onto your property. You will be able to record the movement of animals via NAIT’s website or by telephoning NAIT Limited to get a paper-based form.
Carrying out your NAIT obligations
You will be able to register yourself, your property, your animals and record any movements of cattle and deer off your farm or property via NAIT’s website or by telephoning NAIT Limited. Alternatively, you will be able to use NAIT- approved information providers to help you meet your NAIT obligations and provide information to NAIT Limited.
The facility to register yourself and your farm or property will be available on a voluntary basis from early 2012, and from mid-2012 for registering and recording movements of cattle.
Click here to find out more about NAIT-approved information providers.
