Get rid of “ghost” livestock

ICMSA has urged farmers to request up-to-date Cattle Movement Monitoring System profiles of their herd if they were not paid for extensification, even if they were within the qualifying livestock limits.

Some farmers have not been paid the extensification premium, or were paid the lower rate, because non-existent animals were still being recorded in their herds by the CMMS, according to John O’Leary, Chairman of the ICMSA Beef and Cattle Committee.

He said most of these problems related to cattle transactions some years ago, which remained on the herd record, and urged farmers to bring their CMMS record up-to-date, pointing out that it will play an important part in the Single Farm Payment, expected to stay in place until 2013.