Cross Compliance - Important reminder for farmers

Friday 03 July 2009

FIGURES from the Rural Payments Agency, published in April, show that livestock record-keeping is still one of the biggest areas of cross compliance failure for farmers in England.

The figures, available on the RPA website show that in 2008 statutory management requirements (SMR) 7 and 8 (cattle identification) were responsible for 1286 cross compliance failures, out of a total of 2026 failures found on English farms.

SMRs 8a (animal identification and registration – sheep and goats) and 18 (welfare of farmed animals) were the cause of the next highest failure figures, at 218 and 204 respectively.

As a general rule, the standard reduction for a first time, negligent breach of cross compliance standards is now 3% of the single farm payment and payments for Pillar 2 schemes (e.g. Environmental Stewardship). This 3% can be increased or ereduced, depending on the assessment of the breach.

Welfare of Farmed Animals - The most common failures found during the 2008 inspection regime included:

Medicine records are not kept;
Mortality records are not kept;
Sharp edges or protrusions in accommodation fittings likely to cause injury;
Sick animals not cared for appropriately;

Cattle Identification – the most common failures found during the 2008 inspection regime include:

Failure to report movement of an animal;
Failure to report death of an animal;
Movement details not recorded or incorrectly recorded on CTS or in farm records;
Lost tags not replaced, animals not tagged.

Sheep and goats identification – the most common failures found were:

Sheep and/or goats’ records not maintained in accordance with legal requirements;
Sheep and/or goats not tagged in accordance with legal requirements.

Up-to-date on farm records must include:

An annual inventory of the animals kept at December 1^st
Details of the movement of sheep and goats on and off your holding, including:
The date of movement;
The number of animals moved;
The destination and origin of animals;
The transportation details for animals leaving your holding.

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