What will change in the I&R registration?

Which adjustments in the Identification & Registration System (I&R) for cattle are desirable? That is the question that a working group from the sector has wanted to answer in recent months. On Friday 7 December, Minister Carola Schouten (Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality) will announce the conclusion of the working group.

Last year there were various irregularities detected in the I&R system. "Irrespective of whether the irregularities entered the system consciously or unconsciously, it is important that such a system contains correct data. That is why the working group was set up," says Schouten. The working group was also asked to investigate what options there are to reduce the risk of incorrect registrations in the I&R system for cattle. 

Conclusion of the working group
The working group states that the I&R system for cattle is robust. However, there are sufficient possibilities to reduce the chance of incorrect registrations. According to the working group, the greatest risks of inaccuracies are when entering the data after the birth of a calf. "Once an animal is properly registered, the risk of errors is a lot smaller," the minister said.

Based on this information, the working group has drawn up a package of measures. "This concerns measures that the sector itself will take (or has already taken) and measures that the government will introduce." An overview of the measures can be found below.

1. Adjustment of the Calf Tracking System
The first measure that the sector has taken and which is part of the package of measures, is the adjustment of the KalfFollowing System (KVS). "As of 1 June 2018, the specified date of birth, but the date of notification of the birth, is no longer decisive for the moment at which the period of 14 days starts," writes Schouten. "If an earlier birth notification is corrected, the period starts again. Cattle farmers therefore benefit from entering the calves correctly and in time in the system."

2. Brands for reporting
A second measure concerns marking before reporting. This means that a calf must first receive an ear tag before the birth notification is entered into the system. Schouten writes that if calves are marked first, the chance of incorrect registrations is reduced. "The chance of mixing animals (after registration) is reduced," she writes in her letter to parliament.

However, it emerged from the consultation that marking for reporting can lead to practical problems (including for the existing management systems). "To give the industry time to prepare for this change, I intend to let this measure go into effect on April 1, 2019 (instead of January 1, 2019)." The minister also stated that the ear tags and the notification of the birth must take place within 3 working days (see also point 4).

3. Administrative fine
According to Schouten, drawing up the package of measures was not the reason for introducing the administrative fine for the I&R Regulation. “However, this has brought the implementation forward,” she writes. "The I&R regulations will eventually be brought under the Animals Act and the administrative fine will be broadly introduced there." Schouten does say that she also wants to introduce the measure for other farm animals. "This is to enable consistent supervision and enforcement."

"The fine will be added to the total enforcement instruments of the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA), which range from issuing a warning to prosecution through criminal law," Schouten said. "However, not every deviation in the I&R registration will immediately be punished with a fine; after all, a mistake is possible."

Little is known about the amount of the fines. Schouten: "A violation with possible consequences for food safety falls into a higher category than an administrative violation. The amount of the administrative fine cannot therefore be compared with the fines imposed in criminal law," she writes. A distinction will also be made between commercial and non-commercial animal keepers. "A moderation clause will be included in the scheme." This regulates that the amount of the amounts for private individuals is halved (compared to the amounts stated in the Animal Health and Welfare Act).

Minister Schouten plans to introduce the administrative fines as of 1 July 2019. "The NVWA still needs some time to prepare for working with these fines, for example because they have to draw up specific intervention policy and because they have to inform the sectors about this," Schouten reports.

4. No reduction in reporting period
Initially, Schouten reported that the reporting period would be shortened from 3 working days to 3 days. In this way, the weekend also counts towards the term. The idea was that the chance of errors is smaller if the period between the birth and the reporting of the birth is as short as possible. However, Schouten has decided to reverse this measure.

"Shortening the term appears to have many objections, including for beef cattle." Beef cattle are often kept more extensively and can be less tame, which has implications for calf marking. "A shorter reporting period in combination with the obligation to mark the animal before reporting makes it difficult for the livestock farmer to have enough people available. I think this is reason enough not to introduce a shorter reporting period."

On the other hand, various sector parties (with the exception of the beef cattle sector) indicate that they attach great value to the introduction of this measure. "However, it is not possible to introduce this only for dairy farms, since the I&R system makes no distinction. After consultation with the sector, I have decided not to introduce a shorter reporting period now, but to investigate whether it is possible and sensible is to distinguish between dairy and beef farms." If that is the case, Schouten will reconsider shortening the term specifically for dairy farms.

5. No restriction on rebranding goats and sheep
Schouten also announced earlier that the remarking of goats and want to limit sheep to 1 time. She also reversed this measure. "The measure would lead to practical problems. Sheep and goats lose 1 or both ear tags with some regularity. It is not always easy for a keeper to check how often an animal has already been remarked."

Reduce ruggedness
"As a result of the package of measures, incentives are built in that stimulate the timely and correct input of data. This will benefit the robustness of the I&R system. However, the introduction of the data remains human work and therefore it cannot be expected that it will be 100% error-free. is", Schouten concludes her letter. 

View the full Parliamentary letter here.

Kimberly Baker

Kimberly Bakker is an all-round editor at Boerenbusiness. She also has an eye for the social media channels of Boerenbusiness.

k.baker @boerenbusiness. Nl

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