Farm Records
It is a legislative requirement that keepers must record in their Herd Register details of all cattle births, deaths and movements on and off the holding.
The following information is the minimum that should be kept in the farm register for each animal:
- Eartag number
- Date of birth
- Sex
- Breed
- Identity of genetic dam
- Date of death of animal on the holding
- Date of movements on and off your holding, and
- Details of where the animals had moved to or from
The herd register may be paper or computer based, and should mainly be in the form shown in schedule 2 of the Cattle Identification Regulations 1998. In accordance with Regulation 29(5) of the Cattle Identification Regulations 1998, registers must be kept by farms for 10 years and for 3 years in any other case (e.g. markets) from the end of the last calendar year in which the entry was made. A copy of the male and female herd registers are available to download. There are also printable spreadsheets available for the male and female herd registers.
Registers must be completed within the following deadlines.
- 36 hours in the case of movements "on" or "off" a holding
- 7 days for the birth of a dairy animal
- 30 days for the birth of cattle not in a dairy herd
- 7 days for a death
- 36 hours for replacement eartags