Author Topic: Animal health visit pre herd mark allocation (Read 4559 times)

Paulie · « **on:** August 12, 2015, 11:23:21 am »

Hi all,

I just want to make sure I've done things correctly and what animal health will be looking for if they visit.

Pre cattle arriving I phoned animal health and bcms and both said as long as I have my cph I can move the cattle onto the holding and then I ring both agency's bcms to register and provide passport details and animal health to obtain my herd mark. Bcms is all dealt with but animal health said they may do a visit before providing me with a herd mark and this may take 3 weeks.

Anyone know why they visit and what they may be looking for?

SophieLeeds · « **Reply #1 on:** August 12, 2015, 12:01:14 pm »

Animal health visit everyone around us (Yorkshire) when they get cattle. Not sure why cattle are deemed to warrant a visit more than any other livestock to be honest.

Our last visit meant going through some paperwork (standard questions 'what animals do you keep' 'how many of each' 'who's your vet' etc). They then want to have a look at your medicine books, and any movement books for other animals. This is a good opportunity to ask any paperwork questions you might have. They'll ask what you're planning on doing with the cattle- dairy, beef etc. They'll want to see where the animals are kept, if there's enough grazing & shelter for them. They'll also take samples of any feeds you have to make sure you're adhering to regs. They'll ask if you have a cattle crush etc, then inform you to contact your vet in a few weeks to book a TB test etc.

I'm sure there's a few more bits and bobs Ive missed out, but largely its to check that you have everything in order to provide for your livestock properly and according to regs. We've had a few visits and they've usually been and gone in about an hour.

Top tip - make sure your medicine book is filled in correctly and up to date

HTH

Paulie · « **Reply #2 on:** August 12, 2015, 04:42:36 pm »

medicine book, don't have one of those

where do I get one? also what's acceptable food storage as I just use galvanised dustbins for what's In Use and stack the sacks on a pallet.

SophieLeeds · « **Reply #3 on:** August 12, 2015, 04:49:27 pm »

I use one i think is published by Castle Hill, but your bovine register will have a section in the back for all medicine administered to cattle if you'd rather use that.

I have tonne sacks of feed on pallets too, they take samples to check you're not mixing your own feed illegally.

Marches Farmer · « **Reply #4 on:** August 12, 2015, 05:11:33 pm »

We didn't have an inspection before we began keeping cattle, although we already had a herd mark left over from the previous owners and because we'd kept pigs for a number of years. We get our vetmed record books from fearing.co.uk, who supply lots of useful kit.

farmvet · « **Reply #5 on:** August 12, 2015, 10:28:33 pm »

Remember your dog food cant be stored near livestock feed....contains meat...iilegal to feed to livestock under bse regs.
Medicine records can be recorded anywhere to suit your system. A prpoer book is useful for large farms but a simple spread sheet or notebook is fine too.

SophieLeeds · « **Reply #6 on:** August 13, 2015, 07:53:56 am »

Quote from: Marches Farmer on August 12, 2015, 05:11:33 pm

We didn't have an inspection before we began keeping cattle, although we already had a herd mark left over from the previous owners and because we'd kept pigs for a number of years. We get our vetmed record books from fearing.co.uk, who supply lots of useful kit.

Did animal health give you the same herd mark as from the pigs then? We got the same herd number as the flock number from our sheep, which is six numbers. Our pig herd numbers are two letters followed by four numbers.

waterbuffalofarmer · « **Reply #7 on:** August 13, 2015, 08:42:39 am »

They never do this with me. The only time they visit my place is when I import buffalo from Italy, then they give them tons of blood tests and at least two TB tests, which are always clear.

Paulie · « **Reply #8 on:** August 14, 2015, 08:36:07 am »

Thanks everyone for your help, fingers crossed they don't visit

waterbuffalofarmer · « **Reply #9 on:** August 14, 2015, 09:39:39 am »

The only time animal health did a full inspection was when I registered my cph and bought in some stock for the first time. If they turn up out of the blue and want to do an inspection, or ring you up i think that you have the right to say no its not convenient, they can't push themselves onto your holding unless they have a warrant to do so. So i have been told, correct me if am wrong?

pharnorth · « **Reply #10 on:** August 14, 2015, 09:49:26 am »

You can get the medicine book and others like flock or breeding records from Amazon. Bit pricey and nothing to stop you making an electronic spreadsheet instead as long as you get all the info on it.

Bionic · « **Reply #11 on:** August 14, 2015, 09:54:02 am »

I don't know anything about cattle but do layers pellets need to be stored seperately too, like dog food?
I don't have them these days, mine are fed mixed grain, but when I did they were kept in a seperate stable.

SophieLeeds · « **Reply #12 on:** August 14, 2015, 09:59:01 am »

Quote from: Bionic on August 14, 2015, 09:54:02 am

I don't know anything about cattle but do layers pellets need to be stored seperately too, like dog food?
I don't have them these days, mine are fed mixed grain, but when I did they were kept in a seperate stable.

We had an inspection just over a month ago and I keep layers in a bin next to tote bags of sheep creep and the lady never said anything, but I didn't know the above!

However, she didn't take any samples of chicken feed - not sure if they only take 'livestock' feed samples? I keep all feed together, with the exception of pig feed which is in 10 tonne bins and dog/cat food in the house.