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NLIS Cattle in Western Australia : Directory

What is NLIS Cattle?

NLIS stands for National Livestock Identification System. NLIS (Cattle) is Australia's system for the identification and tracing of cattle. It is a permanent, whole-of-life identification system that enables individual animals to be tracked from property of birth to slaughter.

NLIS provides the facility for cattle to be electronically identified at the time of transaction, in saleyards and at the time of slaughter. Cattle movements between properties are also logged on the secure central NLIS database.

Why implement NLIS?

For the last 30 years, Australia has used the tail tag system to identify the last property on which the cattle resided. The system has worked well but traceability was limited as the tail tag only identified animals in a mob situation to the property of last dispatch. Previous history can only be traced by paper-based systems such as National Vendor Declarations and saleyard records.

The recent BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) cases in Japan, Canada and the USA have highlighted the need for a system that delivers individual lifetime traceability of cattle. The introduction of the NLIS will ensure the social and financial impact of any disease outbreak such as Foot and Mouth or BSE would be minimised. The NLIS provides speed and accuracy over the previous system.

How does NLIS work?

The NLIS involves using scanning machine-readable Radio Frequency Identification Devices (or NLIS electronic devices) to identify cattle.

NLIS approved electronic ear tags or rumen bolus/ear tag combination:

Each device contains a microchip encoded with a unique number linked to the PIC of the property of origin. Cattle are tagged with NLIS electronic devices only once in their life.

Cattle identified with an NLIS device are electronically scanned as they move through the livestock chain. At the time of scanning, each owner's PIC will be recorded and linked to the NLIS electronic device and consequently, to an individual animal. The purchaser/receiver of the cattle is then responsible for updating this transaction information for storage in the secure NLIS database.

NLIS is not just a system of electronic identification devices and technology to read and record these identifiers - NLIS is a package of identification and tracing requirements differing according to the type of movement.

For the regulations governing the use of NLIS in Western Australia, see NLIS minimum requirements for Western Australia.

Benefits of NLIS

The key benefit of NLIS is to uphold Australia's reputation as a quality producer. It underpins the integrity and safety of our cattle and beef products on a world class scale. NLIS can also benefit producers through enhanced on-property management. There are options for its use in improving productivity and efficiency in your enterprise.

Links Index

NLIS Fact Sheets

The NLIS database homepage offers very clear guides to assist account holders - producers, third party, livestock agents etc. Select "Help Tools" at the top of the page. The guides are freely available for download. Hardcopy versions will be forwarded when a new account is created. A Step by step guide to creating an account has been published by the Victorian DPI and could be useful to you. Please note - to create an account to monitor cattle on your property or to perform transfers on the NLIS database, you will be required to provide your PIC, which is issued when you register for a brand.

For further information on NLIS in Western Australia, contact:

Phone: Department of Agriculture & Food, Bunbury (08) 9780 6100
Email: nlis@agric.wa.gov.au.
NLIS Officers in regional areas.

For information on NLIS nationally:
NLIS helpdesk 1800 654 743
MLA website: www.mla.com.au

Department of Agriculture & Food website contact: Beth Green, Vasse Research Centre, (08) 9753 0302.

Page Updated: November 2006