Frequently Asked Questions
A new cattle movements service is being developed by LI Ltd, to form part of a Multispecies platform, building on the live service for sheep, goats, and deer. The LI cattle service will replace in England the Cattle Tracing System (CTS), similar services have been or are being developed in Scotland and Wales. English cattle movement data will transition from CTS to the new cattle service due to go live in Autumn 2024.
It is due to go live at the same time as the new LI Cattle Service, in the Autumn of 2024.
A public consultation is a process which involves members of the public providing their views and feedback on changes or updates to a particular policy or proposal. The Cattle ID and Traceability policy team at Defra obtained clearance to go to public consultation on Changes to Bovine Identification, Registration and Movement. This consultation ran for 8 weeks between 21st September and 15th November. LI are awaiting the outcomes of this consultation and will update our guidance in Q1 2024.
As a reminder this consultation covered.
The ‘CHANGES TO BOVINE IDENTIFICATION, REGISTRATION AND MOVEMENT’ consultation focuses on the prospective changes and resulting benefits of new cattle ID regulations. It includes discussion on the following topics.
- Simplification of the regulations.
- Fairer and more proportionate enforcement.
- Bovine electronic identification.
- Future holding registers.
- Removing passports for cattle fitted with bovine electronic identification.
- Movements and reporting, with whole movement reporting, options to report moves in advance and provision of transportation details.
- Introduction of paperless processing.
- Late registration of calves.
The full consultation document can be viewed online
The new Multispecies platform will be future proofed to ensure the current bovine consultation and any future legislation changes can be enabled by the system.
The DEFRA Livestock Information Transformation Programme (LITP) is currently trialling BEID ear tags and tag reading equipment at 5 farms across England with a total of over 800 head of cattle involved in the trials. Pilot farmers are using EID as an alternative to reading ear tags visually in a range of situations including live weight recording, vaccination, milking, foot trimming, TB testing, and movement reporting. The pilot project is also following some of these animals through to abattoir and market in December and January to test the approach in live industry scenarios. The interaction points between BEID and software packages used by the trial participants has been considered and there will be opportunities to feed in your thoughts in early 2024. In the meantime, if you have any questions about the pilot, please contact naomi.willoughby@rpa.gov.uk