Shropshire Council

Moving livestock

CPH Numbers

Before moving livestock (Cattle, Sheep & Goats, Pigs), you'll need a County Parish Holding number (CPH) for the land where the livestock are to be kept. To apply for a CPH you need to contact;

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA)
Tel: 0300 020 0301  
Email: ruralpayments@defra.gsi.gov.uk  

CPH numbers are used when recording and tracing movements of livestock between premises. This is important for disease control and the human food chain. An example of a holding number is 35/345/00050 the “35” stands for the county the “345” stands for the parish and the “0050” is the individual premises.

Keeping Horses and less than 50 Chickens do not require a holding number (CPH).

Chickens only need to be registered with the Defra poultry register 0800 634 1112 if you have more than 50 birds for disease control purposes.

Animal movements

Movements take place under what is known as a General Licence granted by Defra, which sets out the conditions for the move. You can obtain a copy from the Defra website or from your local APHAO.

The general conditions include, observing appropriate standstill periods, cleansing and disinfection, animal ID, scheduled stops and various exemptions.

Sheep and goats

Movements of sheep and goats must be accompanied by the movement document known as ARAMS1. This is an A4 document that has quadruplicate parts. This document contains the details of the movement, departure CPH, destination CPH, number of sheep/goats, identification, date, transporter details. The document travels with the animals. You must retain your copy for 3 years. Details as to who keeps what copy are on the bottom of the form. (A copy should be kept by the departure premises, the transporter, the destination and a copy should be sent to ARAMS).

It is the destination premise owners / keeper’s responsibility must send the white copy to, ARAMS within 3 days of the sheep/goats arriving. (If the receiving destination owner / keeper is located outside of England, please post the white copy to the Local Authority of destination).For movement licences, please contact ARAMS, your nearest livestock market or your Local Authority.

ARAMS

The postal address for return of movement forms: 

Animal Reporting & Movement Service (ARAMS)
SouthWestern
PO Box 6299
Milton Keynes MK10 1ZQ 

Website: www.arams.co.uk 
Email: farmershelpline@arams.co.uk
Tel: 0844 573 0137 

ARAMS registration portal user guide

Cattle

Cattle are moved accompanied by a cattle passport. These were a chequebook style document, recently they have become an A4 paper document. The cattle passport contains the details of the animal and movements are recorded on the passport and are signed and dated by the keeper within 36 hrs of the move. BCMS provide a keeper with a passport for an animal when they're born and register the birth, by providing the dam identity and the date of birth to BCMS within 7 days of the date it is tagged or in the case of a dairy herd 7 days from the date on which the second tag was applied. The passport should be sold with the animal. BCMS also provide a sticker for the keeper to administer to the passport with the CPH number. The movements of cattle are reported within 3 days, online, by post or by phone to The British Cattle Movement Service (BCMS) with whom you will need to register.

BCMS

When registering / purchasing cattle it is important to check that the details on the passport match the animal. If the details are not correct you can contact BCMS and correct it. This is important for traceability and the human food chain, if details are not correct it can affect whether the animal can go into the food chain. It is an offence to tamper with a passport. You must report any deaths to BCMS within 7 days and send the passport back to BCMS.

If a passport is lost, stolen or destroyed the keeper must notify the BCMS within 14 days in writing, (there is a section in the passport for deaths).

Pigs

Pigs are now moved through phone/electronic movement reporting to (BPEX) with whom you will need to register to report movements.

Pigs are moved on a pre movement license on the day of the move or before. Pigs should not move off a holding unless the movement has already been reported to BPEX. Details should include, the holding number, the date, number of pigs, the destination and identification of the pigs (tag).

BPEX

Horses

Horses are not considered a farmed animal in the UK so no holding number is required. However, horse / pony / donkey owners must have a passport for their animals. Passports are issued by a multitude of passport issuing organisations (PIO). It's a legal requirement to have a horse passport. A passport must accompany a horse at all times except in specific situations when it must be readily available for inspection within a certain time limit. All horses born after the 31 of July 2009 must be micro chipped and any horse that does not have a passport before this date must be micro chipped and signed out of the human food chain (Section IX of the passport).

Horses should not be moved without a passport unless under the following circumstances, stabling, short hack or ride, moved for pasture. Please follow the link below to the horse passport agency for more information.

Six day standstill rule

When livestock arrive on your holding, it will trigger a movement standstill. In other words no animal can move off the holding for a certain period of time after the movement on.

The standstill rule is there to protect against the spread of disease.

Pigs trigger a 20 day standstill on other pigs when they move onto a holding.

Pigs trigger a 6 day standstill on any cattle, sheep or goats on that holding. Cattle, sheep and goats moving onto a holding will impose a 6 day standstill on any cattle, sheep, goats or pigs already on that holding. The only exemptions to the standstill rule are moves to Exempt or Approved Finishing Units (EFU) & (AFU) licensed by Defra. Moves to slaughterhouses or “Red” markets (where animals go onto slaughter as opposed to “Green” markets which are store markets).

For example:

If some cattle or sheep are moved onto a holding which already has some sheep or cattle on it, on a Tuesday, that holding becomes locked down for six clear days. Animals can be moved on the seventh day, therefore the following Tuesday.

If a pig is moved onto a holding with pigs already present on a Wednesday, all pigs will be locked down for twenty clear days. They can be moved on the twenty first day which would also be a Wednesday.

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