Cattle farmers say it makes sense to produce a more environmentally-friendly and less expensive passport given the increase in electronic reporting. The new-style passport will contain all the same information as the cheque book style passport but it will not contain movement cards. There are no changes to the rules. Cattle keepers will still need to report all movements to BCMS within three days and keep their farm records up to date.

Farmers favour the British Cattle Movement Service’s online system – CTS Online – and the CTS self-service phone line, over traditional paper-based reporting – but not just for movement recording.

Farmers chose one of the electronic channels to report around 82 per cent of cattle births in April 2011, compared to 75 per cent the year before and the number of births, movements and deaths reported on the self-service phone line increased from 6,310 in March to 8,448 in April – a 34 per cent jump. In addition to CTS Online and the CTS self-service phone line, there are a number of farm software packages that enable farmers to record electronically, rather than use paper.

Sue Mellor, BCMS Operations Manager, said:

“Our electronic cattle tracing services have proved extremely popular so it makes sense to produce a new cattle passport which meets the needs of our farmers, saving them time and effort.

“We have worked with industry, including the NBA and NFU in England, Wales and Scotland, to design a robust new passport and this single-page format is a direct response to an increase in electronic reporting.”

“The electronic services are available 24 hours a day 7 days a week so farmers can report births, movements and deaths at a time that is convenient to them.” 

More information on the new passport and electronic services can be found on the BCMS pages of the new RPA website at rpa.defra.gov.uk, by phoning the BCMS helpline on 0845 050 1234 (English) or 0845 050 3456 (Welsh-language) or by email to bcms-enquiries@rpa.gsi.gov.uk