OSPRI extends support to flood-affected Canterbury farmers

Our upper South Island regional team is working with the emergency response teams in the Canterbury region. They have been in touch with MPI, Rural Support Trusts, and the Animal Evacuation Response Team based at SPCA Christchurch.

'Our message is to stay safe and look after one another and follow Civil Defence advice. We have extended the timeline for declaring your NAIT obligations,' says OSPRI Head of Traceability Kevin Forward.

'We appreciate this adverse event has happened during the Moving Day period, one of the busiest times of the year for animal movements. But, we hope that giving people a bit of breathing room by extending some timeframes will help at this difficult time.' says Mr. Forward.

These timeframes will apply from when the state of emergency across the Canterbury region is lifted.

• PICA registration — to be done within 7 days.
• Animal movements — to be declared within 7 days.
• Animals that arrive untagged — to be tagged and registered within 7 days.
• Animal deaths — to be declared within 21 days.

These timeframes are normally 48 hours.

Given the importance of animal traceability and biosecurity, we're advising farmers to still tag and register their animals before moving.

Where possible, farmers should record any dead stock in their NAIT account and check if any NAIT tags have been lost or misplaced in the flooding.

Support available

• If you need help with domestic or lifestyle animals, contact Animal Evac NZ on 03 349 7057.
• For commercial farm assistance, call MPI on 0800 008 333.
• If you need emergency feed, help moving stock or cleaning up, call Federated Farmers on 0800 376 646, or the Rural Support Trust on 0800 787 254.

Photo credit: Christchurch City Council.