NLIS: Sheep and goats - Questions and answers

Australia needs effective identification and tracing systems to provide whole-of-life traceability to maintain consumer confidence in the safety and integrity of meat, and to underpin Australia’s domestic and international trade in livestock and livestock products.

This is especially important in the case of an exotic disease outbreak, such as Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), where effective tracing of livestock can reduce the impact of such a disease, or in a food safety or chemical residue incident.

The NLIS is underpinned by legislation in each state or territory. In NSW this is the Biosecurity (NLIS) Regulation 2017.

Permanent identification of livestock benefits livestock industries by:

• improving livestock traceability to reduce the impact of livestock disease and residue incidents
• ensuring ongoing access to valuable overseas markets
• maintaining consumer confidence in Australian beef and dairy products
• offering producers improved herd management options, and
• providing better proof of ownership to reduce stock theft
• Further information is available on the NLIS page, and enquiries can be sent to enquiries.nlis@dpi.nsw.gov.au.

Yes, the NLIS Regulation requires that:

• All sheep and farmed goats leaving a property must be identified with an accredited NLIS (Sheep & Goats) tag
• All movements of sheep and goats must be accompanied by an NLIS movement document (such as an National Vendor Declaration or Transport Stock Statement)
• All movements of sheep and goats between properties with different Property Identification Codes (PICs) must be recorded as a mob-based movement in the NLIS database.

You'll find a full overview of your responsibilities to identify your livestock on the NLIS Sheep and Goats page.

You will find all the information you need to identify your sheep and goats in our 8 step guide for moving and selling sheep.

NLIS database accounts are available free of charge.

The approximate cost of NLIS (Sheep & Goats) visual ear tags is between 25 and 35 cents per tag.

For those producers who elect to use NLIS electronic tags, the approximate cost is $1.60 or more.

Sheep or farmed goats can be traced back to their property of birth by checking the PIC number on their tag against the PIC recorded on the movement document and looking at the movements onto and off PICs in the NLIS database.

NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) has the role of implementing the NLIS in NSW with the help of Local Land Services (LLS). Contact your nearest LLS office for information and advice on the NLIS (Sheep and Goats).

Local Land Services:

• allocates a property identification code (PIC) to your property
• provides emergency tags for stock which have lost tags or otherwise need to be tagged
• checks that the requirements of NLIS (Sheep & Goats) are met in saleyards
• provides NLIS advice to producers

You will find the contact details of your LLS office on their website.

NLIS (Sheep & Goats) provides a standardised identification and traceability system for the Australian sheep and goat industries which is required by overseas markets.

On-farm benefits include:

• the ability to identify stock more easily if they stray or get boxed with a neighbour's stock
• unique individual stock identification for management purposes, if an individual identification number is added when ordering tags

All sheep and goats on agistment should be tagged.

Kids or lambs born while on agistment must be tagged with an NLIS tag printed with the agistment PIC before being moved home or anywhere else, except where it is not practical to tag the sheep or goats on the agistment property, or when the lambs and kids are too young to tag and they are moved with their mothers.

Even though you own the stock on the agistment property, you cannot use tags printed with your 'home' PIC on the agistment property. The PIC on the tag must match the property on which the stock is tagged.

Yes. The sheep or goats must be tagged with an NLIS ear tag before they leave the property and must be accompanied by an NLIS movement document.

Yes. The sheep and goats must be identified with an NLIS tag before they leave the property and must be accompanied by an NLIS movement document.

A 'movement' is defined as any movement between two properties with different PICs. This includes movements to stock events such as shows or sheep dog trials, or from a property to a saleyard or feedlot, or to an abattoir.

There are some exemptions from tagging:

• feral goats consigned directly from the property of capture to an abattoir for slaughter or via one goat depot. (Note: a feral goat is one which has been captured from a wild state, has not been born as a result of a managed breeding program, and has not been subjected to any animal husbandry procedure or treatment).
• lambs or kids that are both unweaned and unmarked and moved or sold with their mothers
• lambs or kids born in transit or at a saleyard if sold with their mothers. (If separated a special NLIS tag must be attached).
• lambs or kids born on agistment and moved on permit to the home property
• sheep or goats moved with a permit to allow them to be tagged in more suitable yards on another property
• sheep or goats moved for up to 2 days to a property that shares a fence line with the home property (a contiguous property), and back again
• sheep or goats moved to part of the same property (same PIC) even though they may be required to leave the property
• sheep or goats moved to a contiguous property because they are grazed continuously between those 2 properties
• sheep or goats moved during an emergency such as a flood or bushfire
• if the goats is a dairy or earless breed.

Note:

• Dairy or earless goats moved to a saleyard for sale or to an abattoir for slaughter must be tagged
• An NLIS movement document must still accompany stock when they move without tags

A PIC is a unique eight-character number assigned to properties by LLS.

A property must have a PIC if on that property there are:

• one or more cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, bison, buffalo, horses and other equines, deer, camelids such as alpacas, or
• 10 or more large poultry (emus and/or ostriches), or
• 100 or more small poultry (chickens, turkeys, ducks, pigeons, quail etc), held in captivity.
• The owner/occupier of the property on which stock are held in captivity, and the owner or person in charge of the stock held on the property, must each ensure that the property has a PIC.

A PIC has eight characters:

• The first letter is ‘N’ for New South Wales
• The second character is a check letter that allows computers to automatically confirm that the PIC is valid and has been correctly entered
• The next two numbers are for the former Rural Lands Protection Board district (within the LLS region)
• The final four numbers make up the individual property number

You can read more about PICs on our Property Identification Code page.

All sheep and goats must be accompanied by an approved NLIS movement document when they move, such as one of the following:

• Livestock Production Assurance (LPA) National Vendor Declaration and Waybill (NVD), an electronic or eNVD
• Transport Stock Statement (TSS) obtained from Local Land Services (LLS)
• Post Sale Summary (PSS) (provided by saleyards for stock going to slaughter)
• Local Land Services stock permit, or
• Permit granted under the Biosecurity Act 2015.

NLIS movement documents include the following information:

• PIC or address of the property or location that the sheep or farmed goats are being moved from
• PIC and/or address of the destination
• number and type/description of sheep or farmed goats in the consignment
• whether the sheep or goats were vendor bred or not
• PICs of all ear tags in the sheep or farmed goats in the mob
• date of the movement

A copy of this document must be kept by the purchaser/receiver of the sheep or goats for 7 years if a producer, or 2 years if a processor or agent.

NLIS (Sheep & Goats) relies on the combination of ear tags, movement documents and recording every movement in the NLIS database to achieve traceability. Industry has determined that retaining the movement documents for 7 years will ensure that the records are available to allow whole-of-life tracing, should this be required.

A TSS is a stock movement document which provides all the necessary information to satisfy LLS regulations regarding stock ownership in transit, the carrier and the destination of the stock. TSSs are available from your nearest LLS office.

A National Sheep or Goat Health Declaration is a document that provides the purchaser with information on the health of the animals they are buying or which are moving onto their property. A national health declaration is not an NLIS approved movement document, although it is a mandatory requirement if you are moving sheep or goats from another state into NSW.

A National Vendor Declaration and Waybill is an approved NLIS movement document that provides required traceability information to satisfy the regulations for the sale or movement of sheep or goats and provides the purchaser with general information regarding animal health and residue risk of the stock being sold. Within NSW LPA NVDs are approved as TSSs.

The NVD is a compulsory element of the LPA (Livestock Production Assurance) scheme. The LPA NVD is available from Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) in the form of a booklet, an eDEC or an MLA approved electronic NVD (eNVD). For more information contact the LPA helpline on: 1800 683 111 or email: lpa@mla.com.au

Yes. All movements require an NLIS movement document such as an NVD or a TSS to accompany the sheep or goats.

When you send sheep on agistment, the owner of the stock is responsible for ensuring the stock movement to the agistment property is recorded in the NLIS database. The stock owner and the agistee should agree who will do the upload to the NLIS database, but the owner is ultimately responsible for ensuring the movement is recorded.

When sheep or goats return from agistment to the property they came from, it is the stock owner’s responsibility to ensure this movement is recorded on the database.

If stock moving from agistment don't go back to their original property, the person receiving the stock, i.e. the abattoir, saleyard operator or new owner is responsible for recording this movement on the database.

When you send sheep to a stock event such as a show, it is the responsibility of the operator or organiser of the event to record the movement of the stock onto the stock event property (e.g. show ground PIC) and back to the ‘home’ property, in the NLIS database.

If the stock moves from the show to another property which isn’t the ‘home’ property, it is the responsibility of the new owner or receiver of the stock at the next property (e.g. show organiser, abattoir or saleyard operator or owner of the stock at the new property) to record that movement in the NLIS database.

Yes. This may be an NVD or a TSS. The important thing is that the document has the following information recorded:

• the PIC of the property the animals moved from
• the date that the movement occurred
• the number and type of animals
• the PICs of all tags in the animals
• whether the animals were vendor bred or not

Accept the sheep or goats if you wish and request a completed version from the vendor or your agent. Advise your Local Land Services office if the previous owner doesn’t provide an NVD or TSS within 7 days.

Yes. Processors are required to obtain an NLIS movement document before they slaughter any stock, and keep the movement document for two years.

Sheep and goats must be properly identified using NLIS approved ear tags and be accompanied by an NLIS movement document. Movement documents must be filled out completely, correctly and legibly and signed. All animals in the mob must be tagged.

There are two types of tags needed when selling sheep and goats:

• Breeder tags have the PIC of their birth property on them and are attached to sheep or goats on their property of birth. These are usually produced in a colour assigned to their year of birth (see table below).
• Post-breeder tags are used to identify untagged sheep or goats no longer on their property of birth, and are printed with the PIC of the property on which the stock is being tagged. Post-breeder (emergency) tags are used to identify sheep or goats at a saleyard which have lost their NLIS tags, and are printed with the PIC of the saleyard or LLS district code. Post-breeder tags are pink.

Post-breeder tags printed with your PIC may be used to identify stock you have bought-in that is already tagged with a breeder tag. This allows easier identification of bought-in sheep or farmed goats, particularly when they may have come from various sources. If sheep or goats are identified with your post breeder tag, the ‘other PIC’ details don’t have to be filled in on the NVD when moving or selling the stock. Remember that tags should never be removed (for example you should not remove the breeder tag if a sheep or goat has an additional post-breeder tag attached).

NLIS tags don’t replace ear marks. Ear marks are the only permanent marking on sheep and are a valuable way of identifying animals if an ear tag is lost or if sheep stray or are stolen.

Application of an earmark is voluntary. Contact LLS to register an earmark if you don’t already have one.

All sheep and goats must be identified with an NLIS tag which meets the NLIS (Sheep and Goats) standard for Visual and RFID tags, i.e. they are accredited NLIS devices.

There are two different types of NLIS tags that can be used to identify sheep or goats, i.e. visual or electronic (RFID) tags.

Visual tags are printed with the NLIS logo and the PIC of the property on which they are attached. It is strongly recommended that breeder tags be used according to the correct year of birth colour (see table below).

Electronic tag use is voluntary under NLIS (Sheep & Goats) in NSW. Sheep identified with an electronic tag in NSW are treated as if they are part of a mob and movements are recorded as mobs in the NLIS database. Electronic tags must be printed with the NLIS logo and the PIC of the property on which they will be attached.

Electronic tags may allow for more intensive animal management as individual animal data can be recorded and stored for each animal.

Yes. The PIC number should be printed so that it can be easily read when the animal is handled. Other information relating to the property, stud or management can be printed on the tag, as long as it doesn’t obscure the readability of the PIC.

Orders for approved NLIS identifiers in NSW can be made through your local rural merchandiser or directly through the tag manufacturer.

The person processing the tag order - tag manufacturer or reseller - must check before accepting and placing the order that:

• the correct PIC for the property is used
• the person placing the order is entitled to do so, being either the owner or occupier of the property (PIC manager) or a person with sheep or goats on that property and given approval by the PIC manager to use the PIC to order tags

The tag supplier should also check that any other irregularities in the order are resolved before supplying the tags.

Manufacturers and suppliers of stock identifiers must supply tags that meet approved NLIS standards. Tags must be printed with the NLIS logo and the PIC of the property on which they are used.

Other information can be printed on the other side of NLIS visual tags. A list of NLIS accredited ear tags and their manufacturers is available on the NLIS website.

Use of NLIS breeder tags which correspond to a nationally agreed colour for the year in which the lamb or kid is born is strongly recommended. This allows for visual age identification at a distance and can help with tracing. The colours are rotated through an eight-year cycle:

Table 1. Sheep breeder tags - year of birth colour tags

This is not recommended. Buyers of your stock may prefer the correct colour for the sheep or goat's year of birth. You should use the year of birth colour where the age of the animal is known.

Not unless they lose a tag, in which case you would attach a pink post-breeder tag with your PIC.

A pink post-breeder tag printed with your PIC can also be attached to bought-in sheep which you resell. This means that recording of the ‘other PICs’, on the tags of bought-in sheep, on the NVD isn’t needed.

If sheep or farmed goats lose their NLIS tag, the tags must be replaced before the stock leaves that property. If you have bred the stock on that property, you may attach another breeder tag. All other sheep or goats must have a pink post-breeder tag printed with your PIC attached.

Yes, if it assists your management. This is also an option if you do not wish to record all ‘other PICs’ relating to bought-in sheep or goats on the NVD when they leave your property.

No. You are required to use NLIS ear tags printed with a PIC. The additional printing on the tag of a ‘V’ may be used to signify that the sheep have been vaccinated with Gudair.

Sometimes this may happen, but if shearers are warned that the sheep are tagged they should take appropriate care. As with other tags lost on-farm, you should replace any lost tags at the next appropriate animal husbandry event with a breeder tag if the sheep was bred on your property, or a post-breeder tag if the sheep was bought-in or you are unsure of its origin.

Tags may be attached to either ear, as long as the tag does not obscure any registered earmark.

The only requirement is that the lambs, sheep, kids or goats are tagged prior to leaving the property. Often the most efficient time to tag lambs or kids is at marking or weaning.

Most stock will only have one tag but some may have more, e.g. a breeder plus post-breeder tag/s applied at a later date.

Yes. Post-breeder (emergency) tags are available through your Local Land Services for use where tags have been lost in transit or if tags have been ordered and not arrived in time for an urgent sale. Emergency tags usually cost more than breeder tags.

If you are moving sheep or farmed goats to a saleyard, abattoir or to another property with a different PIC all sheep or goats must be tagged before they leave your property. Those that have lost tags should have a new tag attached. If there is no doubt that the animals have been born on the property, a replacement breeder tag can be used, but otherwise a pink post-breeder tag should be attached.

You must ensure that the imported sheep comply with NSW NLIS and health requirements. It is compulsory for introduced sheep and goats to be accompanied by a correctly completed sheep or goat National Health Declaration. These declarations can be found on the Animal Health Australia farm biosecurity website.

You must comply with the NLIS and animal health requirements of NSW and of the destination state.

Property-to-property (P2P) movements include movements between properties with different PICs which occur as part of normal management, for agistment, after being sold, or to and from shows or other stock events. This includes along Travelling Stock Reserves (TSRs) or roads, or for any other purpose, even if the stock remain in the same ownership.

For producers, this involves:

1. Registering as a producer on the NLIS database – this can be done on the NLIS website
2. Entering the movement onto your property on the database if animals are received from another property as a result of a private or on-line sale, for example.
3. Checking to make sure that the movement of sheep to and from an agistment property, or that sheep or goats purchased from a saleyard or public auction, have been recorded in the NLIS database as moving onto the correct property.

The movement of animals between properties needs to be recorded within 2 days of the movement taking place.

If you purchase animals from a public auction, e.g. an on-property ram sale or saleyard, then it is the responsibility of the person conducting the auction to ensure that the movement of animals to and from the sale are recorded on the NLIS database.