Thousands of cattle allegedly vanished from the national tracing system after investigators discovered their supposed location was a seaside house.

The animals were logged, moved and ultimately lost in a blind spot that has now landed a couple before the courts, accused of supplying false information that prosecutors say created a potential biosecurity risk.

Northsouth Livestock and its owner-directors, William and Kathryn Reid, were recently on trial at the Whangārei District Court on offences related to animal registration.

Three breaches of the National Animal Identification Tracing system (NAIT) were laid by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) after it was alleged the couple had been providing false information.

Under the NAIT Act, those involved in livestock trade must provide a NAIT number linked to a physical address where animals are being kept.

The purpose is to track stock from 9 months old until death, and provide information on their location or movement to improve biosecurity management and risks to human health.

The Reids have a history of farming in the South Island and incorporated Northsouth Livestock in 2020.

They acted as agents for farmers in the North and South Islands who were looking for herds of dairy cattle.

When the couple bought cattle from the South Island, the animals were transferred to the Reids’ NAIT number and were required to be transferred out on sale.

The address linked to their NAIT number was a beachside property of less than an acre on Bream Bay Drive in Ruakākā, Northland.

MPI investigators became concerned after visiting the property and seeing that it was incapable of housing the thousands of cows Northsouth had registered over the years.

In Crown openings, Ina Stewart said the Reids traded for three years, logging details for about 1800 cows, knowing they had provided false information.

“No animals were ever held on the property. This was a lifestyle block and was, to put it plainly, unable to hold livestock,” Stewart said.

“This created a gap where it is unknown precisely where the animals were located or whether they had in fact come into contact or mixed with other herds which could create a bio-hazard risk.

“Those animals were effectively lost and unable to be accounted for.

“The prosecution submits this was a matter of convenience, which created a biosecurity risk. Simply put, these animals are unable to be traced.”

The address registration

Wayne McKean, for William Reid, said his client was responsible for the transport of the animals and that it was his wife who set up the NAIT number.

“That address was provided by his wife to NAIT to simply say that is where he lived and that is the place from which he ran his business.

“It is his case [that] he obtained a NAIT number to register himself as a person in charge of an animal (PICA). It is arguable the act required him to do that.”

McKean said that, every time an animal was registered to his NAIT number, “he was not saying this animal is going to my home”.

“He was saying this animal was under my charge while I’m transporting it to another farm.”

Wayne McKean (pictured) said Bill Reid left the NAIT administration to his wife. Photo / NZME

Kathryn Reid’s lawyer, Rebecca Hunter-Kelson, said she registered the address at the request of her husband with the intention of saying it was where they operated their businesses.

“At no point did she say this is a farm.”

Hunter-Kelson said Kathryn Reid was acting with an honest and genuine belief that the pair were meeting their obligations under the NAIT.

“The NAIT Act is not well worthy of defining obligations,” Hunter-Kelson submitted.

MPI officer Rick Solomon said that, when he first checked the property’s records in 2023, it showed several hundred animals listed as alive.

But when he arrived for a site inspection, he found “none at all”.

“It just looked like a typical coastal beach property,” he told the court.

In an evidential interview played to the court, William Reid said he did not have access to the NAIT system, but his wife did.

Disappearing cows

William Reid told MPI they required a NAIT number to buy stock from the South Island because they were often unsure where the animals would be going.

When they bought stock, they were required to provide the NAIT number within 48 hours, which Reid did for transporting purposes.

They bought stock from the South Island as they were better quality. They would be loaded onto trucks and brought north, but often the receiver would not log their NAIT number.

“The definition of a NAIT location is a NAIT location where animals are held,” Solomon put to him in his interview.

“We’ve obviously filled that out wrong,” William Reid responded.

Solomon referred to several entries of cattle moved from a South Island NAIT number to Reid’s number with no further information beyond.

“Did these animals come here?” Solomon asked in the interview.

“No,” William Reid said.

“If they didn’t come to this NAIT number, do you know where they went?” Solomon asked.

“I would do, yes, I’d have to look it up.”

William Reid said in his interview that the couple were having problems with animals disappearing from too many trucks.

“Now we photograph them and send them to everybody. That’s the only way to do it.”

Judge Peter Davey has reserved his decision for late June.

Shannon Pitman is a Whangārei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in Te Tai Tokerau. She is of Ngāpuhi/Ngāti Pūkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.