Livestock Movement Rules

Farming Minister, George Eustice, announced on 27th Julythat the new livestock movement rules (See May’s article) will start rolling out as from that date, with completion by summer 2017.  DEFRA has started to send the first batch of letters out to livestock keepers who are affected.  Farmers do not need to do anything until they receive a letter. 

The changes, which were originally recommended by the Task Force on Farming Regulation, aim to simplify the current regulations.  The new rules will be the same for cattle, sheep, pigs goats.  Keepers will be able to move all animals around any land they have registered and are using within a 10 mile radius (usually from the main animal gathering point, or correspondence address) without the need for recording, reporting or triggering standstills, as long as the land is under the same CPH number.  Livestock producers will be able to register all the land they use within a 10 mile radius under the same CPH number.  This will include land on FBTs and Grazing Agreements.

Those who currently hold more than one CPH number will be written to between now and summer 2017.  The letter will include details on how to apply to ‘merge’ different CPH numbers.  It will be possible to ‘associate’ CPH’s for land used on a temporary basis via a Temporary Land Association (TLA) for up to one year and this land will be treated as part of the permanent CPH for all livestock recording and reporting purposes.

All Cattle Tracing System (CTS) links will be withdrawn by summer 2017.  The British Cattle Movement Service (BCMS) will contact all those affected before the links expire to explain the options to those affected.