Earlier this year Defra Secretary Michael Gove announced a new livestock traceability service. Industry stakeholders have been involved with the development of this service, which is overseen by the Livestock Information Programme (LIP), through a partnership called the Traceability Design User Group (TDUG). Aimed to give farmers and processors accurate information on animals’ movements the group is hoped to provide the foundation for some of the best farm to fork traceability in the world post-Brexit.
The RABDF are a stakeholder in the development group and sit in on any TDUG meetings as a representative for the dairy sector.
The Farm Inspection and Regulation Review Interim Report has recently been published and released into the public domain. With farm regulation and its associated inspections a topic of concern amongst farmers it is important that moving forward new practices are considered to alleviate the concerns around the current process of these visits.
With this in mind it is good to see Defra acknowledging the work of the LIP through the following comments outlined in their report:
Page 5: On a more positive note, we welcome the Livestock Information Programme and the prospect of a world-leading, multi-species livestock traceability service. It certainly has its place in future regulatory arrangements. It is important in our view that the future regulatory regime can properly underpin and sustain innovative programmes such as this one.
Page 67: There was a lack of communication, and transparency, about when farm visits were to happen and how farms were selected. Visits themselves were seen as a burden, especially by micro-businesses, with an average 3.5 hours taken up by a local authority visit. Animal welfare visits take the greatest average time – 3hrs 49 minutes – presumably because of the collecting and gathering of animals. Here, the Livestock Information Programme holds out the promise of remote monitoring as well as much more efficient monitoring on farm when needed.
To view the full report please click here