Owning a lifestyle or small block
Living on a lifestyle block or small farmlet can come with challenges and extra responsibilities.
All animal owners have legal obligations under the Animal Welfare Act 1999.
This includes ensuring animals in your care have:
- access to adequate food, including pasture, silage, hay, pellets
- a clean supply of water
- shade and shelter
- reliable fencing to keep them safe, contained, and off public roads
- identification (including a NAIT tag, if necessary)
- required husbandry practices (shearing, hoof trimming, parasite prevention).
Seasonal calendar
Careful monitoring and planning can help prevent or reduce animal welfare issues.
We’ve developed a practical seasonal calendar for lifestyle block owners.
Managing your lifestyle or small block through the seasons [PDF, 602 KB]
Getting through hot, dry weather
Prolonged hot, dry weather can bring:
- increased risk of drought
- water scarcity
- wildfires
- feed shortages
- heat stress in animals.
You can prepare by making a plan. The planning you do beforehand can make a real difference later.
Prepare your lifestyle or small block for hot, dry weather – fact sheet [PDF, 590 KB]
Preparing for emergencies
Emergencies can happen at any time. When you live on a lifestyle property, you might have to deal with them on your own until help arrives.
Detailed advice is available on how to prepare for an emergency, what to do, and who to reach out to.
Now's the time to create an emergency plan to keep you, your whānau, and animals safe.
Lifestyle block emergency preparedness handbook [PDF, 4.1 MB]
Make an emergency plan (template) [PDF, 6.2 MB]
Legal obligations
It matters how animals are treated.
We all have responsibilities towards animals in our care and those affected by our activities.
Find out more about the clear rules in place to protect the welfare of animals
Biosecurity on your farm or lifestyle block
Good biosecurity helps keep animals free from pests and diseases.
Learn about biosecurity on your farm or lifestyle block
NAIT obligations
If you own cattle or deer – even if it's just 1 pet cow – you must register with NAIT and TBfree. This enables animals to be traced if there's a disease outbreak.
All cattle and deer must be NAIT tagged before they leave your property or reach 180 days of age, whichever is sooner.
After you tag your animals, it’s important you register them in your NAIT account within 7 days.
Lifestyle farmers and pet owners – OSPRI
About Animal Status Declarations (ASDs) – OSPRI
Find out more
Always seek professional advice from your veterinarian for any aspects of herd or flock health or management.
Animal welfare regulations for lifestyle blocks – leaflet [PDF, 509 KB]
Practical guide to rearing lambs [PDF, 3.2 MB]
Ruminant feed regulations for preventing BSE or "mad cow disease"
Feeding food waste to pigs and preventing disease
Feeding offal to dogs and preventing hydatids