New regulations mean stockowners have greater individual responsibility to make sure they don’t bring bovine Johnes disease (BJD) onto their property.

Despite the significant publicity given to the changes I am concerned that many NSW beef producers may not be aware of what it means to them.

All NSW beef producers who have contact with dairy cattle are now involved in management of BJD — not just those who were historically in the control zones.

If you are buying dairy cattle anywhere in NSW, even just one house cow, or a poddy calf for the kids, you must ask about the BJD status of the stock before you make the purchase.

Sellers of dairy cattle are required to provide a Dairy BJD Assurance Score with all stock.

The score is scaled one to 10 with one being very high risk and 10 being low risk.

NSW Department of Primary Industries recommends beef producers who are not in the Beef MAP to only buy dairy cattle with a score of seven or above.

Even better, to protect future marketing options beef producers are advised to maintain a Beef Only status for their herds by either avoiding buying dairy cattle or only buying dairy cattle from herds enrolled in CattleMAP, that is with a Dairy BJD Assurance Score of eight or above.

They also need to avoid grazing their cattle on land grazed by dairy cattle.

It is also very important to be aware that if you buy from dairy herds with a score of six or less you run the risk of having your herd and property quarantined.

As well, no assistance package will be available for herds quarantined as a result of purchasing dairy cattle with a score six or below.

In summary, the important points if you are buying dairy cattle:

• ask for the Dairy BJD Assurance Score
• only buy Score seven or above
• if you are Beef Only, only buy Score eight or above
• you may be quarantined if you buy from Score six or below
• no assistance package is available to herds quarantined after buying from Score 6 or below herds.