Calving — Be a mate, update NAIT

Calving is a busy time on-farm. It’s also a great opportunity to support lifetime traceability by fulfilling your NAIT obligations. It’s essential to be able to trace animals back to their original source. If we have a biosecurity incursion or we’re managing a livestock disease outbreak like M. bovis, NAIT helps us work out where affected animals have been, what other animals they have come into contact with, and what we need to do to prevent the spread of disease.

Be a mate — update NAIT.

For some helpful guidance around calving this year, check out the links below.

NAIT obligations during calving

During calving season, you must:

• fit all calves with a NAIT tag before they reach 180 days old (the tag should be in the central or inner part of the right ear, between the 2 veins)
• register any fitted NAIT tags within 7 days of tagging
• tag and register all calves before their first movement. So if you are sending them off your location, make sure you meet your NAIT obligations.

We recommend using a scanner to register your animals and record movements.

If you're buying calves

If you’re buying calves, confirm with the seller:

• that they have completed an Animal Status Declaration (ASD) form
• that the calves are tagged with a NAIT tag
• what the calves' TB status is
• the NAIT number of the calves.

Remember to record receipt of animals in NAIT within 48 hours.

If you're selling calves

Before you send your calves off-farm, make sure they're tagged correctly and registered in NAIT. Using NAIT tags in numerical order will make them easier to enter into the system. Using secondary identification, such as birth tags, may also be helpful.

It's an offence not to tag and register your calves, unless they are exempt from tagging. For example, bobby calves (under 30 days old) going directly to slaughter from the property they were born on are exempt. If they move to another property before slaughter, you must tag and register them.

You also need to:

• find out the NAIT location number of the buyer
• prepare an ASD, which includes information about the TB status of your animals
• create a sending movement in NAIT within 48 hours of the day they were sent (if you're not selling through an accredited saleyard).

By paying some extra attention to your NAIT obligations over this period, you will be setting up your farm and New Zealand’s biosecurity system for success.

Be a mate — update NAIT.