Source: NZ Ministry for Primary Industries
A Kaikōura dairy farmer has been fined $35,000 for failing his National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) responsibilities involving hundreds of cattle, following a successful prosecution by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI).
Trevor Ronald Bolton (59) was sentenced in the Kaikōura District Court (6 March 2026) on 3 representative charges under the NAIT Act. Mr Bolton earlier pleaded guilty to the charges.
Under the NAIT Act, the movement of all cattle or deer must be declared to the NAIT organisation, Operational Solutions for Primary Industries (OSPRI), within 48 hours. Additionally, all animals must be fitted with a NAIT tag and registered in the NAIT system by the time the animal is 180 days old, or before the animal is moved off farm.
Mr Bolton runs 2 large dairy farms and is the person in charge of the animals. MPI’s investigation found significant failures including not registering 269 NAIT animals, failing to declare 571 NAIT animals that were being moved off farm, and failing to declare movements of 83 NAIT animals onto his farms. For each of these failures, he was fined $11,666.
“The system is critical to New Zealand’s ability to trace potentially affected animals to manage disease or biosecurity incursions. This farmer’s failures under the NAIT Act related to almost 1,000 animals. As we have learned from our experience with Mycoplasma bovis it only takes one animal to cause a problem,” says MPI district manager of animal welfare and NAIT compliance upper south, Paul Soper.
“MPI takes non-compliance with NAIT seriously. Put simply, when people in charge of animals disregard or fail to live up to their NAIT obligations they put the whole agricultural sector at risk,” says Paul Soper.
More information on NAIT and your obligations as a person in charge of animals – OSPRI
For further information and general enquiries, call MPI on 0800 008 333 or email info@mpi.govt.nz
For media enquiries, contact the media team on 029 894 0328.
