Years of NFU lobbying has finally resulted in changes to the way farmers in England can register their farms for the purposes of reporting livestock movements.
Under the new rules farmers will be able to apply to register all the land they use within a 10 mile radius, whether on a permanent or temporary basis under the same County Parish Holding number and will no longer be required to report moves between those parcels of land.
Meanwhile, complex rules on livestock movements including Cattle Tracing System (CTS) links, Sole Occupancy Authorities (SOAs) and batch recording for certain batch recording exemptions for sheep movements will all be removed.
NFU livestock board chairman Charles Sercombe said: “I applaud these changes which have been a long time coming since the McDonald review proposals and we believe they have the potential to simplify the holding registration and livestock movement regime which has been a burden on the livestock industry for many years.
“Many of our members have indicated that this is a positive step and should clarify how they manage their businesses on a daily basis, without any loss of traceability and disease control measures.
“We still await the absolute detail and seek assurance that those producers that need CTS links and SOAs to manage their businesses will not be adversely affected.”
