Echuca farmer fined

An Echuca farmer has been fined $2000 on charges of stealing five cattle and making and using false documents in relation to the sale of them.

The man was also charged with removing National Livestock Identification System ear tags from the cattle.

The NLIS tags trace cattle movements in Australia to prevent disease outbreaks from one area to another.

All farms have a property identification code which identifies the property the animal has come from, and this is among information included on the ear tags.

Police said the Echuca farmer was contracted by a NSW farmer to take eight cattle to a Seymour abattoir for processing, but when the NSW farmer did not receive payment from the abattoir, he discovered only three of his cattle had been offloaded for processing while the other five were still recorded as alive on the national livestock database.

When the NSW farmer contacted the accused, the accused said the cattle had been killed at another abattoir and he provided a false kill sheet.

When police spoke to the Echuca farmer, he identified two of the NSW farmer’s cattle in his paddocks.

He also produced a kill sheet from an interstate abattoir, and said the three head of cattle on it belonged to the victim.

Police inquiries revealed the Echuca farmer had removed the NLIS tags and replaced them with his own post breeder tags.

Thirteen days later, a search warrant of the accused’s Echuca farm found a number of cattle which the accused said he bought from a hobby farmer and that had no NLIS ear tags when purchased, yet police found four ear tags near and in a bin they say were cut out of cows’ ears.

Detective Senior Constable Jason Hare of Campaspe Criminal Investigation Unit said police wanted to stamp out this type of behaviour within the livestock industry, in particular the removal of the NLIS tags and false vendor declarations.

“The removal of NLIS tags and false declarations make the traceability of animals impossible when it comes to biosecurity,” he said.

“This region has already suffered significantly from the result of a biosecurity breach with the suspected outbreak of blue tongue virus in 2017.

“We are continuing to monitor livestock sales and transfers within the region.”