A period of grace given for farmers to comply with the new national animal identification and tracing system will run out early next year.
The NAIT scheme became compulsory for cattle last month, and proposed new infringement rules have been put out for public consultation.
In addition to existing rules covering obligations and exemptions, as well as fees and other administrative details, the Ministry for Primary Industries wants penalties for wrongful access of information held in the database.
Deer farmers will join the scheme in March next year.
Cattle farmers have been allowed some time to get stock registered and fitted with new electronic ear-tags, but MPI manager Chris Baddeley says that additional regulations will take effect from January.
Mr Baddeley said the NAIT act provides a high level of information protection, but additional rules will cover access for people like researchers and forecasters.
