Tougher cattle checks after FVO inspection

CATTLE farmers who use a high level of replacement cattle ear tags will be more likely to be visited for cross-compliance checks, as part of the Department of Agriculture’s response to findings by the EU’s Food and Veterinary Office’s (FVO) inspection of the Irish beef traceability system.

Also, a check against the cattle database of the stock of tags present on farms will form a new part of cross-compliance inspection, following very serious cattle identification deficiencies reported by the FVO team on one of the two farms they visited.