Paperwork brought to book with efficient new internet facilities
It can also bring with it a lot of paperwork and form filling. Calf birth registration, calf events recording — and this year, posting of BVD tissue tags and the forms linked with it.
Much of this form filling can be carried out online using the Department of Agriculture’s online services.
It’s quick, easy and less prone to errors. In 2011, approximately 720,000 calves or 34% of all calves registered were registered online.
In 2012, this increased to more than 890,000 calves, 41% of all calves registered.
It’s worth your while to get familiar with some general points of using the department’s online services.
The first thing you will require is a computer with an internet connection. Broadband is preferable, but not essential.
A slower connection will work, but it will just be time-consuming, waiting for the pages to load.
Your computer does not have to be that new either, but it would be best to have nothing older than Windows XP Service Pack 3.
The Department of Agriculture recommends the use of Internet Explorer 6 as your browser, when using the agfood.ie website.
A printer is not necessary, but may be very useful, especially if you are planning on applying for certificates of compliance.
Next, you will need to register with the Department’s ‘agfood.ie’ system — if you are not registered already.
To do this, you can simply visit the department’s website (www.agriculture.gov.ie) and on the left hand side of the home page, you will see an icon for agfood.ie. Click on that.
Under the Register for Online Services heading, click ‘register’. You will then be required to fill in some information in order to register, such as first name, surname, date of birth and PPS number.
You will also need to create a username and password which enables you to login to agfood.ie in the future. Once you have registered, you will receive a letter by post from the Department of Agriculture with your login details. You are then all set to use the agfood.ie website.
It’s worth pointing out at this point that on the agfood.ie page, there are many very informative help videos covering many topics, from registering for agfood.ie to carrying out the various functions on agfood.ie such as calf birth registration etc.
Once you are registered with agfood.ie, there are many tasks you can complete online.
As regards the single farm payment scheme/area aid, you can use the site for:
* Online single farm payment application
* A summary of the application details, parcel details and arable payment enquiry
* You can search for documents showing scanned images of your area aid/SPS correspondence with the Department of Agriculture, which you can print off.
* You can also search for colour maps of your land parcels, which you can print off.
Registering with agfood.ie will also give you access to the Animal Identification and Movement facilities.
These include:
* Calf birth registration.
* Herd profile enquiries; e.g. view details of movements of animals in your herd, or TB and brucellosis test dates for each animal.
* You can apply for a compliance certificate to move animals, which can be printed off.
* Animal events can be recorded for animal welfare recording.
* You can also access annual nitrogen and phosphorus statements.
* The AIM database can also be used as an electronic herd register, which effectively eliminates the need for you to maintain the ‘blue book’.
There are quiet a few major advantages to you using the online services.
Take calf birth registration as an example, it cuts down on the errors which can arise with paper applications. The most common errors are due to difficulties in reading hand writing, or entry of incorrect tag details or details of the breed/sire of the calf/dam. Online, these errors are automatically highlighted and must be rectified in order to continue with the calf birth registration process.
Online calf birth registration cuts down costs and workload for the Department also.
And if errors occur in the paper application, it often leads to even more paper work for the farmer.
There is also the possibility of the registration being delayed, if errors occur, and you fall into the late registration category.
In general, for all the services that can be carried out online, it’s quicker, easier, involves fewer errors, and less hours filling in forms.
Farmers who would not feel competent carrying out these functions online can nominate an agent/agency to have access to their data on AIM, and to update information such as registering calf births. Farmers can nominate a number of agencies to have enquiry access, but can nominate only one to provide updates to AIM on their behalf.
The herdowner remains responsible for all information supplied to AIM. The relevant forms for nominating an agency to act on your behalf can be downloaded from the Department’s website.
How difficult is it to use some of the services available on the agfood.ie site.
To register a calf birth online, you first need to log in to agfood.ie using the log in information required in each field which will be in the letter you receive from the Department, when you register for agfood.ie (see website image, below).
The information that is required to register the calf birth includes date of birth, sex, tag number, dam tag number, sire tag number (AI number, if known). Details such as calving ease can also be recorded.
Once you enter the details, you submit the registration, and the system will check to see if there is any problems. Any errors will be highlighted in red, and must be rectified in order to continue with the registration.
Once you have submitted all the birth registrations, you can view a list of calves that you have submitted to be registered. Registrations can be cancelled online, provided that they are not being processed by the Department staff. Application for movement compliance certificates is a very quick and easy application. Details required include animal tag numbers, herd numbers and movement dates and details. The certificate will then be produced immediately, if there are no errors, and can be printed.
The SPS home screen allows you to access information on land, entitlements, payments and correspondence. You also submit your application here.
If you are submitting an application that has no changes from your pre-printed details, then it is very straight forward.
Just click on the relevant start button. Study the summary page details, you can also print the application, then click submit.
If you need to changes some details, there are simple steps involved in this.
Agents can also submit your applications.
All steps involved have not been mentioned in this article, and some applications or other services available on agfood.ie have not been mentioned in detail.
Full details can be found on agfood.ie homepage under “help videos”.
By using the Department of Agriculture’s online services to register calf births, make your Single Farm Payment applications and make herd enquiries, you can cut down the amount of time spent on paper work, and the errors, and sometimes the stress that’s involved.
You also eliminate the need to maintain the ‘blue book’, if you sign up to use the AIM database as a electronic herd register.
If you do sign up to use online services, and you find it’s not for you, then you can revert back to paper applications. Give it a try; you will see it’s worth it.
