The New Zealand farmers have stalled the introduction of compulsory RFID tagging system for cattle and deer till mid 2008. Once the RFID tagging becomes mandatory, then farmers are required to fix RFID tags to all cattle and deer so they can be identified using wireless scanner, the Chairman of the pan-industry Animal Identification and Traceability Governance Group, Ian Corney said.
Each animal will be given a unique code. The code will be stored in a database.
All the necessary information of an animal such as its sex, breed, owner and herd of origin is also stored in the database. Corney said, No final decision about RFID has been made, but if we are going to be upfront, moving into the 21st century with the technology available, my gut feeling is that is where we will end up.
Animal Identification and Traceability Governance Group has decided to employ a project manager and then it will able to give more definitive dates. The working group will be able to let contracts for the construction of the database after Christmas.
Each animal will be assigned with a unique code. This will be stored in a database alongside the animal’s details such as age, sex, breed, its owner, its herd of origin and the identification number of the property on which it is located.
Read
