The Rotorua deer farm offered about 600 weaner stags and hinds for sale on May 6.
Following advice from NAIT, the Fosters employed a livestock agent to scan the deer and send all movement notifications to NAIT on behalf of Tumunui and their buyers.
Robyn said having Shane Scott of Central Livestock Ltd scan all the deer the morning of the sale, then collate these details back to each buyer, helped avoid any holds-ups after the sale.
Having a NAIT-accredited information provider manage the movement information made sense; Scott was already familiar with the process and had more specialised equipment.
Farmers cannot buy livestock without a NAIT number, but only two registered buyers arrived at the sale with their NAIT numbers readily available. The rest had to be chased up.
NAIT chief executive Russell Burnard said that for many deer farmers, this would have been their first sale since deer joined the NAIT scheme in March. Not having their NAIT number when registering at a sale could slow the sale process.
As this issue went to print, one buyer at the Tumunui sale was still awaiting confirmation of their purchase so they could confirm to NAIT that they had received the deer.
So far, the process of just providing a NAIT number at the sale had been straightforward.
“I’m hoping it will be very straightforward,” the buyer said.
“If it works how it’s supposed to work, it’s not too much trouble.”
Nearly 1100 weaner deer were offered at the Taihape weaner sale on May 8.
New Zealand Deer Farmers’ Association Taihape branch president Andrew Peters said fulfilling NAIT requirements did take extra time, but the sale ran smoothly.
A NAIT representative attended the sale to see how it was going and to talk with farmers.
