Blue Book requirement should be dropped
Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association beef and cattle committee chairman Martin McMahon said, given what he termed the comprehensive and accurate computerised system now in place.
Mr McMahon said every animal in Ireland is tracked by the Computerised Movement Monitoring System (CMMS) in the Department of Agriculture and Food. Under this system the department knows exactly in what herd an animal is at any time.
All movements through marts and from farm to farm, and all births, deaths and slaughterings are recorded. Individual animals can immediately be traced.
Full traceability of all animals is assured.
Mr McMahon said, in that context, the ICMSA feels the legal requirement to maintain a herd register and the possibility of cross compliance penalties make absolutely no sense and should be dropped immediately. It is absolutely illogical that a farmer could lose a proportion of his/her single farm payment because of errors in a herd register that is now effectively redundant from the viewpoint of traceability.
Mr McMahon noted that the recent Action Plan for Agri-vision 2015 stated that the department will seek to ensure that processes are operated in the most cost effective manner possible. It promised the minimum burden of paperwork and regulation consistent with ensuring proper controls.
He said the ICMSA welcomes such comments, but it must see action by the department through eliminating the unnecessary paperwork in the herd register.
