increase font size
Federated Farmers West Coast dairy chair Renee Rooney (right) and NAIT chief executive Michelle Edge at the meeting.
The National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) system has provided MPI investigators of the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak with nearly 1000 reports since the disease was identified last July.
At a time when farmers’ non-compliance with NAIT is blamed for making MPI’s response much harder than it should be, NAIT chief executive Michelle Edge is defending the system as “philosophically well-designed”.
“The system has functioned as it needed to, where the data was in it and where farmers have kept their accounts up to date. We’ve been able to trace stock.”
Edge spoke in a closed session to a recent Federated Farmers dairy and sharemilkers’ combined council meeting in Christchurch.
Interviewed later, she said provisions for enforcing farmers’ compliance were available in the scheme.
“I think further application of compliance needs to occur but there’s definitely some need for farmers to be diligent around their requirements.”
Two committees have been steering a review of the system and are near finalising their recommendations. Consultation will follow but the timing will be in MPI’s hands, said Edge.
“I can’t give any specifics yet but I can say that there are recommendations associated with the identification of livestock, how movements need to be recorded, and the roles and responsibilities of various players involved in the system.
“There’s obviously a focus on compliance and what’ll be applied there.
“The one message I want to give is essentially that the system of traceability – having to tag an animal, register it, register your premises and register your movements... those philosophical elements are unlikely to change because that is the basis of any system in the world.”
But clunky software gets in the way
Feds dairy section chair Chris Lewis said NAIT chief Michelle Edge took lots of questions from council members at the Christchurch meeting.
It was good to get the questions asked and answered, he said. Lewis said NAIT must be changed to make it more user-friendly.
“We’re in the 21st century now. We want iPads and apps.”
“At the moment NAIT software’s quite clunky and that’s why people get frustrated. Do I need to keep two or three software programs for herd records? Or is there one which talks freely with the main provider? If the system’s easy to use, farmers will comply.”
At the start of the meeting Lewis recalled nine months of frustration watching the spread of Mycoplasma bovis.
“We should strive to get back to the situation where at least the North Island is clear. It should then be easy to stop the spread of infection north of Cook Strait and get on with containing it and hopefully in the long run stamping M. bovis out.”
He had been frustrated at times with the response of MPI and “I wouldn’t be the only one”.
“It’s unclear whether an improved NAIT scheme would’ve been better to contain the spread of the disease, but the experts are clear that the movement of infected cattle has been the underlying cause of the spread of M.bovis to other properties.”
Encouraging all cattle farmers to update their NAIT records, Lewis said record-keeping “has not been as good as it could be” on the infected properties.
The reasons for non-compliance with NAIT were many and complex, and some farmers see NAIT as a compliance cost.
The disease is a wake-up call, said Lewis.
“Other countries have learned to live with M.bovis. New Zealand farmers would rather live without it.”
Federated Farmers says new legislation replacing the Resource Management Act will cut red tape, unlock investment and help grow New Zealand's export-led economy, after the Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill passed their third reading in Parliament yesterday.
Leading figures from the major political parties will be questioned on their primary sector policies at the Rural Issues Debate at Mystery Creek Events Centre, Hamilton, on 30 September.
Will the good times last? That's one of the key issues to come out of the latest Federated Farmers confidence survey.
Mid Canterbury Federated Farmers arable chair, Bevan Lill, said Beef + Lamb NZ data indicated that for the last six years, the average arable return on investment was about 0.8% while inflation ran about 4% - so the average arable farm was going backwards at about 3% a year.
For the first time in a quarter of a century, Federated Farmers has something positive to say about the Labour Party’s climate change policy leading into a general election.
LIC shareholders have elected a new North Island representative to the co-operative's Board, along with five representatives to its Shareholder Reference Group (SRG), following the company's Annual Meeting held in Invercargill.
Farmers across parts of Southland and South Otago are continuing to deal with difficult conditions after a prolonged run of wet weather, with pressure building around feed supply, stock management, pasture damage, farm infrastructure and everyday workloads.
Federated Farmers says it welcomes Labour's commitment to reviewing the Sharemilking Agreements Act, calling on other major parties to do the same.
For Canterbury dairy farmers Sian Meijer and Rick Wobben, wearable technology has become one of their most valuable on-farm tools - helping manage 1850 cows across an expansive, high-performing dairy operation while improving efficiency, mating outcomes and day-to-day decision making.
Fonterra has unveiled its annual results for the 2026 financial year, posting $27 billion in revenue and close to $20 billion returned to New Zealand farmer owners and unit holders.
The first major update to the Dairy Cattle Code of Welfare in more than a decade has been released, marking what DairyNZ describes as an important step in ensuring animal welfare standards continue to evolve alongside scientific evidence and on-farm realities.
OPINION: It seems Canterbury processor Synlait is still in the doldrums.
OPINION: Get offside with New Zealand First leader Winston Peters at your own peril.
