New stock

• Disease status of new stock is considered carefully before animals are bought or moved.
• Ask questions about animal health, TB status, vaccinations, disease and treatment history.

Visitors

• Visitors arrive with clean equipment, clothing and footwear and disinfect upon arrival.
• Provide a scrubbing brush and water and a disinfectant spray or footbath for visitors.

Fencing

• Boundary fences are secure and prevent nose-to-nose contact with neighbouring stock.
• Avoid grazing boundary paddocks when neighbour’s cows are grazing the adjacent paddock - or create double fencing or outrigger fences.

Calves

• Young calves are given special protection
• Only allow essential people into the calf shed. Have a separate set of farm clothing and boots to use around calves - clean these regularly.

Weeds

• Potential weeds and pasture pests are identified and prevented.
• Check with your regional council and the agpest website for advice and information. Check that feed sourced from off-farm doesn’t contain seeds of weeds new to your farm.

Pests

• Animal pests are controlled.
•  Keep areas around buildings free from clutter and long grass.
• Store feed securely.

Signage

• Biosecurity signs are clearly visible and easy to follow.
• Include the name and contact phone number of the farm owner/manager to make it easy for visitors to contact the right person. Here’s a template that you can get printed as a sign from your local sign-writer.

Biosecurity on NZ Dairy Farms

DairyNZ's Nita Harding talks about the biosecurity practices farmers can put in place to protect their businesses and animals.

Concerned by a new pest, weed, or disease?

Call the MPI hotline 0800 80 99 66 or contact your regional council for advice.

Publications