Buying livestock online or privately

If you're looking to buy stock animals online or privately, there are some simple but crucial things you need to do to make sure that you're helping to maintain Australia's robust tracing system and protecting our vital export markets.

Once the sale has gone through, you are responsible for doing the property-to-property transfer on the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) Database.

The NLIS identifies and traces livestock movements so that we can respond quickly to major food safety or disease incidents.

Your legal obligations when buying livestock

Within 2 days of receiving stock, you must do the NLIS database transfer when:

• buying privately (through an agent or from a friend or neighbour)
• buying online, for example AuctionsPlus
• receiving stock on agistment
• moving stock between properties with different PICs, including your own or leased properties.

Doing a transfer is easy. Start by registering an NLIS database account.

It is your responsibility to do the transfer. If you think your stock agent is doing the transfer for you, make sure you check with them. Some agents will provide this service, but not all.

For information on how to complete a transfer, visit Integrity Systems.

Buying sheep and goats

The way sheep and goat movements are recorded is changing in NSW. 

All sheep and goats born after 1 January 2025 must be identified with an individual electronic identification (eID) device prior to leaving the property or for sale. 

Stock with an eID device must be transferred in the NLIS database as an individual movement. You will need to know the information provided on the National Vendor Declaration (NVD) provided with the stock  and the animal’s individual ID number.

Sheep and goats with visual tags can be transferred as a mob-based movement up until 1 January 2027. The information you need to do a transfer can be found on the NVD provided with the stock.

From 1 January 2027, all sheep and goats, regardless of their age, will require an NLIS approved eID device and mob-based movements will no longer apply.

Read more about sheep and goat eID.

Buying pigs

A PigPass National Vendor Declaration (PigPass NVD) form must be completed when pigs are moved to a new property. This applies to all pig owners and producers, regardless of the numbers of the pigs moved.

When buying pigs, the transfer is done on the PigPass database.

Buying cattle

Cattle are individually identified, so you will also need the individual tag information. This can either be the Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) number that is obtained from scanning the electronic tags. Or you can use the NLIS ID which is printed on the outside of the tag.