[BrimwoodFarm]

A few weeks ago I went up to our family land to discover four heifers in the barn. The farmer we 'rent' the land to is a sheep farmer so I was kinda surprised to find some cows there.

It got me thinking though...how do you find out a CPH? The farm's been in our family four generations but my dad skipped the farming gene and rents it out. However, the sudden appearance of cows has made me question whether all the proper paperwork was done....none of us were asked.

How would I go about finding out our CPH? I MUST ring our tenant farmer and check they're actually his cattle too!

[Caroline1]

If he has Sheep on the land, he would already have a CPH number which is the same number for any animal. He would need a separate herd number for cattle compared to sheep.

The Rural Payments Agency deals with issuing CPH so they may be able to help, I don't have cattle so not sure who would issue the herd number.

I suppose the question is how restricted is the rent agreement he has with your family over what animals you are allowing him to have on the land.

[BrimwoodFarm]

If he has Sheep on the land, he would already have a CPH number which is the same number for any animal. He would need a separate herd number for cattle compared to sheep.

The Rural Payments Agency deals with issuing CPH so they may be able to help, I don't have cattle so not sure who would issue the herd number.

I suppose the question is how restricted is the rent agreement he has with your family over what animals you are allowing him to have on the land.

I don't think we've ever restricted him to keeping certain livestock on the land @Caroline1. I was just thinking that in terms of moving cattle around etc, if they're on our land then they need to have been moved there using the correct procedures. I don't even know the CPH of our land, so I'm wondering how he'd have officially registered the animals as moving from his farm, to ours.

I don't actually mind - at all. I'm not currently using the land, so I'm happy for them to be there. I'd just to like to know MY CPH number (would I have one if my grandfather worked the land until circa 2000?) and that there aren't animals on my land which aren't actually properly registered.

[waterbuffalofarmer]

If he has Sheep on the land, he would already have a CPH number which is the same number for any animal. He would need a separate herd number for cattle compared to sheep.

The Rural Payments Agency deals with issuing CPH so they may be able to help, I don't have cattle so not sure who would issue the herd number.

I suppose the question is how restricted is the rent agreement he has with your family over what animals you are allowing him to have on the land.

Wouldn't BCMS give out the herd CPH?

[Womble]

Have a look at the instructions here for registering a new CPH. I reckon if you phone them with a grid reference, they might tell you what it is if you ask nicely?

[pharnorth]

May not have one. Our neighbour has just had one allocated, his predecessor didn't have one probably never got round to it as retiring around the time of foot and mouth- not sure they were used before that. 

Your tenant can legally move the animals on using a temporary arrangement as per Wombles link.

[SallyintNorth]

Your tenant will have his or her own CPH on the land, I would think.  Ex-BH had one CPH which covered land he owned and land he rented, plus another CPH on another parcel on which he had an annual grazing arrangement.

It's possible to have two CPHs on the same ground, managed by two different farmers.  A dairy farm where I used to buy calves rented out his fields for winter grazing for sheep.  The sheep farmer had his own CPH for the ground.  I always thought it both bizarre and sensible that I could buy calves irrespective of the sheep's movements - since the sheep were only on when the cattle were housed, it was actually sensible that neither farmer's movements affected the other. 

Of course, I'm talking England, and I don't know which country you are in.

[BrimwoodFarm]

Your tenant will have his or her own CPH on the land, I would think.  Ex-BH had one CPH which covered land he owned and land he rented, plus another CPH on another parcel on which he had an annual grazing arrangement.

It's possible to have two CPHs on the same ground, managed by two different farmers.  A dairy farm where I used to buy calves rented out his fields for winter grazing for sheep.  The sheep farmer had his own CPH for the ground.  I always thought it both bizarre and sensible that I could buy calves irrespective of the sheep's movements - since the sheep were only on when the cattle were housed, it was actually sensible that neither farmer's movements affected the other. 

Of course, I'm talking England, and I don't know which country you are in.

Aha, I expect this might be the case. I'm in England - Suffolk to be precise. I'll give him a ring and find out. I suspect, from what others have said, that we don't actually have our own CPH given that we've not kept livestock on the land since before the foot and mouth outbreak.