📋 Before you start
What NLIS is, and what this section is for.
The National Livestock Identification System is Australia's system for identifying and tracing cattle, sheep and goats. It exists so that if a disease or food-safety problem turns up, an animal can be traced back through every property it has been on. It's underpinned by state and territory legislation, so the detail varies a little depending on where you are.
Integrity Systems describes NLIS as three things working together:
- Every animal carries an accredited visual or electronic eartag.
- Every property has a Property Identification Code (PIC).
- Every movement between PICs is recorded in a central database.
⚠️ "I've only got a few — surely this isn't me"
It is. Integrity Systems puts it plainly: "Hobby farmers must register livestock movements on the NLIS database, regardless of the property size or the number of animals on the property." A PIC is required for a property with any number of cattle, sheep, goats or pigs. There is no small-holding exemption — four sheep are in the system exactly the same way four hundred are.
What this section of My Block Hand is: a place to keep your own NLIS records straight — which tag is in which animal, what your PIC is, and what moved when. What it is not: a connection to the NLIS database. My Block Hand does not submit anything to NLIS on your behalf. You still tag your animals and record your movements at nlis.com.au. The app is the paperwork side, not the lodging side.
1️⃣ Turning it on
The NLIS section appears on its own — but two things have to be true.
You won't see an NLIS section until it's relevant to you. If it isn't showing, it'll be one of these:
- You have at least one Cattle, Sheep or Goat animal. NLIS covers those three, so the section stays hidden until you've added one. Add it under Animals first.
- NLIS is ticked under Settings → Compliance schemes. If your country is set to Australia it's on by default and you don't have to do anything.
🇳🇿 Running both schemes
Compliance schemes are an explicit choice, with your country only setting the default — so you can tick NLIS, NAIT (New Zealand), or both. Both is there for a real case: a New Zealand farm that's also a registered stud selling into Australia. Tick both and you get both sections, each with its own fields, side by side. If NAIT is what you need, there's a separate NAIT guide.
Note that the species differ between the two schemes. NLIS is cattle, sheep and goats. NAIT is cattle and deer. That isn't an oversight in either system — they're separate national schemes covering different livestock.
2️⃣ Save your PIC
Do this once and stop hunting for it.
At the top of the NLIS section is Our PIC (Property Identification Code). Type it in and tap Save. It's the eight-character code your state or territory issued for your property — something like 3ABCD123.
Saving it here means it's on your phone in the paddock, and it goes onto every CSV you export, which is exactly where you want it when you're filling in a movement or a declaration.
🏷️ Haven't got a PIC?
PICs are issued by your state or territory authority, not by NLIS or by us — and the process differs in each state. Your state department is also who you go to for ordering tags and for the movement-recording rules that apply where you are. Integrity Systems keeps a list of state and territory contacts.
3️⃣ Tags, and getting the numbers into the app
Which tag, when — and why writing it down is on you.
What the tag rules are
The short version, current as at July 2026 — check your own state for the detail:
- Cattle must have an accredited NLIS device before leaving the property they were born on. White tags are for permanent identification on the property of birth; orange post-breeder tags are for cattle no longer on their property of birth, or replacing a lost tag.
- Sheep and goats born on or after 1 January 2025 must carry an accredited electronic (eID) tag before leaving their property of birth. Victoria has been fully electronic since 2022; Western Australia phased out visual tags from January 2025 with full eID by 1 July 2026.
- From 1 January 2027, in the remaining states, all sheep and farmed goats — not just those born from 2025 — need an accredited eID device before leaving a property.
💡 Nobody is recording which tag went in which animal but you
This is the bit that surprises people. You don't notify NLIS when you tag an animal. Tags are automatically registered to your PIC by the manufacturer when they're issued to you — so as far as the database is concerned, a bag of unused tags and a tagged animal look the same. Integrity Systems' own advice is to keep your own record of which tag numbers you bought and which animals they went into. That record doesn't exist anywhere else, and it's what this section is for.
Putting the number on the animal
Open the animal under Animals and fill in its NLIS ID field. It appears on cattle, sheep and goats once NLIS is switched on. Everything else about the animal — its farm tag, breed, date of birth, herd — is already on the same record, so the NLIS number sits with the animal rather than in a separate list you have to keep in step.
The NLIS register further down the section is that list, built for you: every cattle, sheep and goat you have, with its NLIS ID beside it. Anything showing — hasn't had a number entered yet, which makes it easy to see at a glance what still needs doing.
4️⃣ Log a movement or loss
Every time stock arrive, leave, or die.
Use the + button in the NLIS section header and pick + Movement / loss. A record holds:
- Type — Sending (leaving my property), Receiving (arriving at my property) or Death / Loss.
- Date.
- Other property's PIC and an optional property name, so you know who it was six months later.
- NVD / waybill number.
- Animal NLIS IDs — paste or type the tag numbers involved, one per line or comma-separated.
- Notes — for a death or loss, this is where the cause goes.
⚠️ Who has to record a movement — this catches people out
If stock go through a saleyard, the saleyard records the movement. For a private sale, it is the buyer/receiver who must record the movement onto their property — that's been legislated in each state. The seller isn't obliged to record the movement off, but is encouraged to, and should check that the buyer has done it. If the transfer never happens, the animal loses lifetime traceability, which matters for markets that require it.
Buying privately through an agent? It's still your responsibility as receiver to make sure it's done. Agree who's doing it at the time of sale, and if the agent does it, ask for the Upload ID as a receipt — it can be written on the NVD.
📄 Keep the NVD
Keep a copy of the NVD for every lot of livestock that comes onto your PIC — they're checked in LPA audits. And for sheep or goats still on visual tags, you can't complete a mob-based movement on the database at all without the NVD/waybill serial number, so that piece of paper isn't optional.
The deadline for getting a movement onto the database is set by your state or territory rather than nationally — commonly within 48 hours of the stock arriving, but check yours. My Block Hand doesn't count that clock down for you; it keeps the record you'll need when you do it.
5️⃣ Export your records
Two CSV files, any time you want them.
Each list has its own export button:
- Export register (CSV) — every cattle, sheep and goat with its name, farm tag, NLIS ID/RFID, species, class, purpose, herd, your PIC, date of birth, registered name, registry/stud book, DNA notes and status.
- Export movements (CSV) — date, type, your PIC, the other property's PIC and name, NVD/waybill number, the NLIS IDs involved and your notes.
Both open in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets. That's what you want for an LPA audit, for handing to an agent, or for uploading a list of tag numbers rather than typing them in one at a time.
💡 The register export is your PIC reconciliation sheet
Integrity Systems recommends a PIC reconciliation every year or few — a stocktake comparing the devices physically on your property against the devices the NLIS database has registered to your PIC. That's a miserable job from memory and a straightforward one from a list. Export the register, put it beside the database's "view devices on my property" report, and the discrepancies stand out.
📅 How long to keep records
Longer than you'd think.
Integrity Systems' recommendation: keep the records for every animal registered on your PIC for as long as they're on your PIC. Once an animal is sold, keep its records for a minimum of seven years, or longer if your state or territory says so.
Seven years of paper in a shed drawer is how records get lost. Everything in My Block Hand stays in your account for as long as you keep it, and both the CSV exports and the full Excel export and backup in Settings mean you can always take a readable copy off somewhere else. Your records are yours, in formats you can open anywhere.
✅ What the app does vs what you do
The honest split.
My Block Hand handles: your PIC saved once and reused; an NLIS ID against each cattle, sheep and goat, sitting on the same record as everything else you know about that animal; a register showing at a glance who still needs a number; movement, receipt and death/loss records with the other party's PIC, NVD number and the tags involved; and CSV exports of both the register and the movements.
You still have to: get a PIC from your state or territory authority; buy accredited tags and put them in; record your movements on the NLIS database yourself at nlis.com.au within your state's timeframe; keep your NVDs; and check that a buyer or agent has completed a transfer you're relying on. My Block Hand keeps your side of the paperwork — it is not connected to the NLIS database and cannot lodge anything for you.
🔗 Where to go for the rules
Straight from the source.
- Integrity Systems — National Livestock Identification System, the national body's overview.
- Integrity Systems — Record keeping for NLIS, including who records movements and how long to keep things.
- Integrity Systems — Sheep & Goat eID, for where the electronic tag rollout is up to.
- State and territory contacts — for PICs, ordering tags, and the movement rules and deadlines that apply where you are.
- nlis.com.au — the database itself. Registering for an account can take up to seven days to be approved, so it's worth doing before you need it rather than the day stock arrive.
This guide describes My Block Hand as at July 2026, and summarises NLIS requirements as published by Integrity Systems at that date. It is general information, not legal or compliance advice. NLIS is underpinned by state and territory legislation, so requirements, deadlines and penalties differ depending on where you are — always check with your own state or territory authority. My Block Hand is not affiliated with Integrity Systems, NLIS Ltd or Meat & Livestock Australia, and does not submit records to the NLIS database.