NLIS Explained for Agents and Saleyards
The National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) underpins traceability for cattle, sheep and goats in Australia. This guide covers how NLIS works, who records livestock movements, and what agents and saleyards need to get right after every sale.
What is NLIS?
NLIS is Australia's system for identifying and tracing cattle, sheep and goats. It has three parts:
- Animal identification: NLIS-accredited visual or electronic ear tags.
- Property Identification Codes (PICs): a code for every physical location that holds livestock.
- The NLIS database: a central record of every animal's movements between PICs.
Animals leaving a property must carry an NLIS-accredited device unless a permit applies. Tags are registered to the PIC by the manufacturer, so producers do not need to notify NLIS when they tag animals on their own property.
Who records livestock movements?
- Saleyard sales: the saleyard records the movement.
- Private sales: the receiver or buyer must record the movement onto their property.
- Vendors: are not obliged to record movements off their property, but sellers should check the transfer has been completed within two days of the transaction.
What saleyards record
Saleyards capture the unique identifier from each movement document and record the sale venue and date, selling agent, head per lot, the PICs read from NLIS tags, the destination PIC and breeding origin details. Post-sale summaries must reach processors before midnight on sale day.
What agents need to get right
For agents, NLIS work lands after every sale: confirming transfers are complete, following up missing or mismatched tags, and answering buyer and vendor queries about where stock came from. Doing this by hand in the NLIS database is slow and error-prone, especially across multiple sales in a week.
How AgriNous speeds up NLIS
AgriNous connects sale data to NLIS so the work happens as part of the sale, not after it:
Sources: Integrity Systems: NLIS; Integrity Systems: Saleyards. Last reviewed September 2026.
Frequently asked questions
NLIS stands for the National Livestock Identification System, Australia's system for identifying and tracing cattle, sheep and goats through ear tags, Property Identification Codes and a central movement database.
In a private sale, the receiver or buyer is responsible for recording the livestock movement onto their property on the NLIS database. Sellers should check the transfer has been completed within two days.
For livestock sold through a saleyard, the saleyard records the movements on the NLIS database.
Yes. NLIS covers cattle, sheep and goats. Sheep and goats are moving to individual electronic identification under the national eID rollout that began on 1 January 2025.
Livestock software such as AgentNous and YardNous captures tag data during the sale and sends NLIS transfers and enquiries automatically, so agents and saleyards are not re-keying data into the NLIS database afterwards.
Take the manual work out of NLIS
Talk to our team about automating NLIS transfers for your agency or saleyard.