Had to laugh earlier, as whilst reading the latest edition of Country Smallholding magazine, February edition, I came across an article about new movement regulations for sheep and goats.
From April 2014 sheep and goat owners will be able to record movements electronically. The article also says that the new system will provide on online flock/herd register for owners to use, all voluntarily. All on and off movements will be recorded against an owner's register. Paper copies of movements will also be able to be printed as these will need to go with the livestock
Don't fret, for all those pen and paper fanatics, you will still be able to use the carbonated forms as is currently the case. This is only the case for England and all current registered keepers will be informed in due course.
This is great news, for me anyway being a bit of a computer geek (according to my husband!), not having to worry if I've got the right form, always the case here as we don't buy and sell that many livestock that often. So good news if this simplifies the system for all involved.
Stats today -
Eggs produced = 4
Sales - Nil
Expenses - Nil
Showing posts with label movement book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movement book. Show all posts
Saturday, 11 January 2014
Monday, 6 January 2014
Movement books
Now I don't know about you, but I find that the movement book and the vet & med book is one of those jobs that gets left behind somewhat, and then when you need the thing for whatever reason, it's practically years out of date.
So having a very important vet visit today (more on that in another post), I thought I had better check that the things were up to date. It used to be that if you had a visit from the vet, especially the vets from the Ministry (MAFF, in the old days), they went through all this type of paperwork religiously, and having had it drilled into me at college about it's importance (my old college mates will back me up on this!) I set about the task.
Thankfully it wasn't far out of date, so the task wasn't so onerous. But it did get me thinking, is this just a job that is completely outdated and a waste of time? I understand the need for keeping medical records, for meat withdrawal purposes etc, but if you're like us here and don't use that many medicines unless absolutely necessary - welfare grounds etc, then you don't run the risk of tainting the meat before eating it. But the movement book seems rather a waste of time these days. Pigs are all done online now; cattle can be, but still need paperwork to follow them wherever they go; sheep are still followed by bits of paper, but even now they have electronic tags in their ears, although I wish someone would devise one that actually stayed in! The system is not foolproof by any means, cattle movements, like visiting the bull, means that the passport has to go with them, but then you have nothing at all to identify that the animal belongs to you, it's all done on trust. I do believe the whole system needs a complete overhaul, surely it can't be that difficult to identify each animal and follow its passage through life, can it? Should we go back to tattooing? At least that was permanent, ear tags never are! Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Stats today
Eggs produced = 2 (!)
Sales - Nil
Expenses - Nil
So having a very important vet visit today (more on that in another post), I thought I had better check that the things were up to date. It used to be that if you had a visit from the vet, especially the vets from the Ministry (MAFF, in the old days), they went through all this type of paperwork religiously, and having had it drilled into me at college about it's importance (my old college mates will back me up on this!) I set about the task.
Thankfully it wasn't far out of date, so the task wasn't so onerous. But it did get me thinking, is this just a job that is completely outdated and a waste of time? I understand the need for keeping medical records, for meat withdrawal purposes etc, but if you're like us here and don't use that many medicines unless absolutely necessary - welfare grounds etc, then you don't run the risk of tainting the meat before eating it. But the movement book seems rather a waste of time these days. Pigs are all done online now; cattle can be, but still need paperwork to follow them wherever they go; sheep are still followed by bits of paper, but even now they have electronic tags in their ears, although I wish someone would devise one that actually stayed in! The system is not foolproof by any means, cattle movements, like visiting the bull, means that the passport has to go with them, but then you have nothing at all to identify that the animal belongs to you, it's all done on trust. I do believe the whole system needs a complete overhaul, surely it can't be that difficult to identify each animal and follow its passage through life, can it? Should we go back to tattooing? At least that was permanent, ear tags never are! Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Stats today
Eggs produced = 2 (!)
Sales - Nil
Expenses - Nil
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