Cattle producer ordered to pay $17,300 for NLIS tag breach
Cattle producer Stephen Blair has been convicted in Albury Local Court, NSW, for incorrectly tagging an estimated 177 cattle at Little Billabong Station near Holbrook with National Livestock Identification Scheme (NLIS) tags assigned to his Victorian property.
Mr. Blair was fined $1800 under the Stock Diseases Act and ordered to pay court costs of $15,500.
"NLIS regulations stipulate that tags cannot be attached to cattle on a different property to which the tags are assigned," NSW Minister for Primary Industries, Ian Macdonald, said.
On 22 June 2006 the incorrectly tagged cattle were sent for sale to Corryong saleyards in Victoria.
If an exotic disease outbreak had occurred at that time and tracing of livestock was required, this simple act could have jeopardized Australia's livestock industries," Mr. Macdonald said.
"Mr. Blair's actions could have delayed tracing long enough to allow a small outbreak of a devastating disease like foot and mouth to spread throughout the country," he said.
NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) agricultural compliance manager, Andrew Sanger, said every stock owner has a responsibility to ensure they play their part in maintaining the integrity of Australia's livestock tracing system.
"To date more than 10 million NLIS devices have been provided for tagging cattle on more than 84,000 NSW properties," Mr. Sanger said.
It is vital that all stock owners tag their cattle correctly and report all property to property movements via the NLIS database.
Saleyard and abattoir operators must also record cattle movements, ensuring whole of life traceability for each animal if everyone abides by the regulations.
Meanwhile, Biosecurity Queensland reports that abattoirs and saleyards have noticed a sharp increase in the number of animals with two NLIS devices.
Biosecurity Queensland principal project officer, Bomber Lancaster, said all animals need to be inspected to ensure they not only have an NLIS device but also that there is only one device attached.
"Once an animal has a NLIS device, that device should stay with that animal for the rest of its life," Mr. Lancaster said.
"The only time a NLIS device should be removed is when it is not able to be read electronically.
"If this is the case, producers need to replace the tag with a 'post breeder' (orange) coloured device from the property the animal is held on.
"If it is a home-bred animal still on its home property another breeder (white) tag should be applied.
"For introduced animals where a post breeder tag is applied, to link the old replaced tag to the new tag, owners should use the replaced tags feature in their database account.
"People who do not have accounts should contact the NLIS database help team on 1800 654 743 for assistance.
"This way, if the animal has life time traceability, it can be maintained."
Queensland Country Life and The Land
http://www.farmonline.com.au
Comments
Director of the Angus Society of Australia admits to less than 25 incorrect government required ID ear tags and pays big. He was caught moving cattle from one of his ranches with ear tags from the other ranch to a livestock auction. No diseased or stolen livestock were involved. This is an example of the enforcement USDA desires to wield over US livestock producers. Note comments below the article. Australian ranchers hate the government ID enforcements and can not stop the fines and massive court costs during one of their most expensive droughts in history. It is not about disease or export. It is total government control. Darol Dickenson
How many cattle have been stolen since tagging has been introduced? Maybe they should tag humans in a similar fashion to see how many of them go astray.
Posted by Pam Prince on 27/06/2008 3:14:36 PM
Unbelievable! Why don't we ask the pathetic m.l.a. board to pay this poor bugger's fine out of our $5 transaction levy. Or better still take the money out these overpaid fatcats salary who run m.l.a. Any cattle producer with an ounce of grey matter would know the nlis system hasn't got a snowflakes chance in hell of tracking a disease outbreak in this country. The whole data base is a mess. Have had that many emails telling me of cattle wrongfully uploaded to my account just delete the lot of them now. Told me there are 1200 active devices on my property have never had any more than 800 head here not all tagged. Will help the govt when it comes to taxing me for cattle flatulence I suppose when carbon credits are imposed on us. The sooner someone sacks M.L.A the better.
Posted by R.T on 28/06/2008 8:21:56 PM
The statements by Macdonald's office are political pork barreling. Wouldn't the inspectors have turned up on the same Mr. Blair's doorstep. This story and comments from the Ministers office makes one thing clear - Mr. Blair has been made an example of. Anyhow who said RLPB's were covered by the constitution. He may be very errant but Mr. Blair certainly has grounds to appeal. And maybe this story is also evidence of victimization.
Posted by Mabel Peton Smyth on 28/06/2008 11:36:41 PM
With the huge numbers of faulty tags that don't read, tags falling out and the pathetic joke that is the NLIS database, a catastrophe is just around the corner if NLIS is relied upon as an effective traceability tool. "Total Life Traceability" (TLT) sounds quite impressive and would be a wonderful thing to have. In reality, NLIS does not and cannot deliver it in Australia due to the nature of our industry. NLIS and TLT should never be used in the same sentence. Why on earth do you think Qld producers continue to brand? Quite simply, it's far more effective than NLIS will ever be.
Posted by CQ on 29/06/2008 5:21:46 PM
As a past Director and Treasurer of the Angus Society of Australia, Mr. Blair should have known that what he was doing was deceptive and a blatant abuse of the system. 177 incorrectly tagged animals is no simple mistake.
Posted by Monty on 1/07/2008 9:32:06 AM
Is there a bigger subsidy in Victoria than NSW for NLIS tags making the Vic tags cheaper? Could this be the reason he made the mistake??
Posted by A.R.M. on 1/07/2008 4:46:18 PM
Old mate from the angus society, you still haven't explained how the nlis rip off is going to track cattle in this country. Having worked in the northern past. industry for 20 years you would understand it's got no hope. Just take a look at the recent floods in emerald -cattle had to be tracked by brands not useless tags. There's millions of reasons it won't work & not many in favour - haven't got the time or space to explain it all here. Sounds like a good idea thought out by penpushers & bureaucrats.
As for replacing tags ask the processors & feedloters why they insist on discounting no vendor bred cattle. I see no reason that if I sell my weaners to a fattener they should be penalized 5 to 10c/kg just another way of ripping us off.
177 steers at 450 kg 79650 kg 10c ripped = $7965. this is just an incentive to replace tags. Getting harder to make a living with input costs having doubled or trebbled in the last ten years cattle prices the same or a lot less at times.
Posted by R T on 1/07/2008 4:53:25 PM
I work in one of the major cattle centres of Australia and I see more enlis problems than most, just note these. We were very happy with the cattle you purchased, we gave them all the necessary winter treatments, took out the old tags and put ours in. I had some orange tag which I had left over but seeing I trucked them back to where they were bred I replaced the orange tags with white tags. No we didn't have to tag them as the buyer said he would put his own tags on the cattle. I better not keep going otherwise we will never get the promised premium price for lifetime traceable AUSTRALIAN BEEF. If anyone out there really believes this is the best thing that happened to the Australian meat industry you will believe in the tooth fairy.
Posted by peter jh on 1/07/2008 8:35:48 PM
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