New livestock scheme 'trade tariff'

Deer farmer Ian Scott has labelled a national animal traceability scheme, approved by the Government yesterday, as "another trade tariff".

The National Animal Identification and Tracing (Nait) scheme, to be introduced to cattle in October 2011 and deer the following year, will use radio frequency identification tags to record animal movements in a national database which will tell consumers where meat has come from. It could also be used to track animals during outbreaks of disease.

Sheep and bobby calves are exempt from the scheme but it is expected to cost other deer and cattle farmers between $2 and $3 more per head than conventional ID tags.

"It's effectively another trade tariff being imposed," Mr Scott, of Oraka Wapiti Deer Park and Restaurant near Tirau, said.

"If it is going to cost more that's not so much if you have got 50 dairy replacements a year, but if you are breeding 300 young deer you are going to end up putting it on alongside another tag that I can read with my binoculars from a distance." Mr Scott farms 1500 deer.

Rob Macnab, chairman of Meat and Wool New Zealand's mid northern Sheep and Beef Council, welcomed agriculture minister David Carter's announcement and said it would give farmers certainty after years of debate.

"We are going to have a system that's going to protect us in the market place," Mr Macnab said.

"It's probably not going to be that expensive."

Taumarunui farmer Ian Corney, who chaired the working group which helped shape the scheme, said much work had already been done on the scheme but there was still much to do. He expected the cost, after the system had bedded in, to be less than the current primary and secondary tag system.

Nait is expected to cost up to $7.02 million to establish, paid for by the Government, and $6m per year to run, funded though Maf and farmer levies.

More than half of farmers surveyed a year ago (58 per cent), supported the scheme.

Similar schemes are already running in Australia, Britain and the European Union, the United States and parts of Canada, South Korea, Japan Argentina and Brazil.

Federated Farmers opposes the scheme, claiming it could be used to calculate carbon emissions on farm.

- © Fairfax NZ News