As a Person in Charge of Animals (PICA) you must:
All cattle and deer must be tagged and registered — it's a 2-step process, although there are some exceptions. You still need a NAIT location number even if you don't have to tag your animals.
You don't need to tag:
You must tag and register cattle and deer within 180 days of their birth or before their first off-farm movement, whichever comes first. It's an offence to move untagged and unregistered animals off your property.
Some tags you can read visually and others, including NAIT-approved tags, you read with an electronic scanner.
Tags approved for use by NAIT are radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. They store information on a microchip inside the tag.
There are 2 types of tags:
White tags are for cattle and orange tags are for deer.
There are other types of tags used for farm management, including:
NAIT-approved RFID tags come in 2 parts — a female and male part. The male part sits behind the ear and the female part sits in front.
Follow the manufacturer's instructions and apply the tags to:
If you apply the tags correctly they are less likely to be lost or damaged.
After you've tagged your animals, you need to register them in NAIT. While you're tagging them, it can be helpful to note:
You can only use tags for the NAIT location you bought them for (unless they have a dairy participant code printed on them). You can't reassign them to, or share them with, another NAIT location. This means if you move you can't take them with you, and you can't lend or sell them to another PICA.
If cattle or deer lose their tag, damage it, or arrive at your farm without one, you need to tag them again. If you know the original tag number you can link the old tag with the new one in NAIT to keep the animal's history. If not, you must register the animal again.
Contact us if you have problems with your tags. For example, you may find they don't last well, become difficult to read or won't stay in your animals' ears.