Farmers are digging in for a long fight in their opposition to the national animal identification and traceability project.
Federated Farmers president Don Nicholson said farmers were not convinced of the need, were suspicious the information could be used for the proposed emissions trading scheme and land sustainability controls, and believed costs outweighed the benefits.
Mr Nicolson said in an interview that there had been no needs analysis or an assessment of the existing system, something that was required, given dairy farmers' estimates it could add 1% to their costs.
The chairman of the national animal identification and traceability (NAIT) group, Ian Corney, said once farmers heard details of the proposal and asked questions, they seemed to be satisfied.
"Federated Farmers has been at the forefront of every decision that has been made in the last four and a-half years. I find their position surprising," he said.
Silver Fern Farms chief executive Keith Cooper was also disappointed at the federation's stance, saying earlier this week that animal identification was in the interest of farmers and something they could influence.
He described traceability it as a "fundamental platform for the future", to secure market access.
Mr Nicolson said concern had galvanised opposition among farmers and he said the federation was being asked why it had not been more hard-nosed in its opposition.
With the proposed emissions trading scheme and pressure from some regional authorities over land use, Mr Nicolson said there was suspicion use of the scheme could be expanded.
"We don't like the thought the database could be used for other activities - checking stocking rates or farming certain classes of animals. It's Big Brother stuff."
He said meat companies had stayed quiet on the issue until the Government announced it would fund $10 million of the establishment cost, then Silver Fern Farms came out in support.
"That tells me that there isn't a market advantage to anyone."
The scheme will be voluntary for cattle and deer from next year and compulsory from mid-2011, but Mr Nicolson said to be successful it would have to include sheep.
"Unless all species are in, they are wasting their time."
New Zealand was needlessly taking a lead.
"We have serious concerns New Zealand is jumping a hurdle that is not being asked for anywhere in the world."
He would rather see the money spent on strengthening borders from incursions, saying an unwanted organism would arrive through an airport or sea port.
The federation was continuing to lobby its opposition but Mr Nicolson said the NAIT governance body appeared to be pushing on with its implementation, despite the opposition.
Mr Corney said NAIT was about preparing for the future.
"As a practising sheep and cattle farmer, if you said to me 'would you spend a dollar today for the industry good going forward' I would say 'yes'.
We can't take for granted that markets will take our products forever.
We can't take for granted that there will never be an incursion of some kind.
"If it did happen in the future, I would like to think the farmers and the industry would look back at what those before them had done, and they had done their bit to make sure the risk was minimised."
> Facts on Nait
•National animal identification and traceability scheme voluntary for cattle and deer farmers from next year. Compulsory from mid-2011.
• Farmers can adopt NAIT-compliant RFID tags as secondary to those required now for bovine Tb.
• Estimated cost of introducing electronic tags $2 to $3 an animal.
• Progression to single tag a medium-term goal.
• Initial cost-benefit analysis showed NAIT would return $1.86 to $2.50 for every dollar invested.
• Farmers not required to buy tag readers. However, a reader could cost $1000-$2000.
Source: www.nait.org.nz