Steak and chips on menu for all by 2011

All cattle and deer in New Zealand are likely to be tagged with radio-frequency identification chips by 2011.

The Government has promised $23.3 million in the Budget to boost biosecurity.

The $10.1 million capital boost and $13.2 million in operational spending provided to the Agriculture and Forestry Ministry will also pay for FarmsOnLine, an online database that will store up-to-date electronic maps of farms along with their contact and stock details.

Ian Corney, a Taumarunui farmer who chairs the National Animal Identification and Tracing project, which is coordinating efforts to introduce RFID tagging, says Budget day was a big day for agriculture.

Trials of RFID tags are under way at a dozen farms in Waikato. "What it means, now, is the traceability database can get built and we can get on with the job," Mr Corney says.

Farmers are likely to be given more details on how to get started at the Fieldays agricultural show next week. Mr Corney says he will be advising farmers to start this year with tagging any cattle that are likely to stay on their farm for more than two years.

Each animal will be assigned a unique code that will be stored in a database alongside details such as the age, sex and breed of the animal, its owner, its herd of origin and the identification number of the property on which it is located.

The government funding should cover the costs of setting up the system but a levy will be required to meet the system's running costs. "It won't be large."

Cattle are likely to be tagged first, then deer, and the system could be extended to sheep and other stock later.

Tagging will be mandatory, but that may not require new legislation, Mr Corney says.

"There is going to have to be regulation put in place before this becomes fully mandatory. There are several mechanisms that can be worked around."

The tags should make it easier to track animals in the event of an outbreak of disease, but could also be used by farmers to improve farm management and by abattoirs and retailers to provide consumers with more information about where meat has come from.

MAF has issued a tender for the development of FarmsOnLine - a geographic information system that will support "a number of key agricultural systems" including the cattle-tracking system.

It says the Waiheke foot-and-mouth hoax demonstrated the need for quick access to comprehensive information about farms.

The most reliable source had been local authority ratings information, but the ministry has not been able to get routine access to that since the Privacy Act was amended in 2003.

FarmsOnline will be a central store for maps of farms and details of their ownership and use.

Farmers will be able to update information through a secure log-in, but the ministry will also pay for a call centre to help keep FarmsOnLine up-to-date. It hopes to complete the application by July 2009.

- © Fairfax NZ News