The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney TD, today announced that over 1 million calves were registered electronically in 2014

Welcoming this development, Minister Coveney said that this represented a record level of electronic calf registrations and involved almost 50% of the 2.14 million calves registered last year.

Commenting on the benefits of electronic registration for farmers, Minister Coveney said that "The use of the electronic herd register removes the requirement to maintain the on-farm bovine herd register, known as the "blue book". The use of AIM to register calves electronically provides a unique opportunity for farmers with home computers to use AIM as an electronic herd register. Use of the online electronic herd register reduces paperwork, errors and the risk of financial penalties arising at cross compliance inspections.”

The Minister reminded farmers that calves can be registered electronically using the Department's online service or an approvedfarm management package. Farmers can avail of the electronic herd register by registering with the Department at www.agfood.ie and use the AIM system to register calves and to move animals privately from farm to farm.

The Minister took the opportunity to remind keepers of their obligations to tag calves within 20 days of birth (or earlier before the calf leaves the holding) and to register calf births within 7 days of tagging. He also emphasised the importance of ensuring that the registration details such as date of birth, dam and sire breed are accurate. Compliance with these requirements is essential to ensure that the integrity of the AIM database is maintained to the highest possible level. Failure to comply with these requirements could result in the application of penalties to payments under the Single Farm Payment.

Minister Coveney said that his Department has produced a very useful manual on the Electronic Herd Register which is available on the Department’s website www.agriculture.gov.ie under “Animal Identification and Movement” at “Cattle”. The manual provides detailed instructions on how to register for the Department’s online facilities as well as providing screenshots covering all the main AIM facilities.

The Minister added that “A farmer may use an agent to submit calf birth registrations and movements electronically to AIM on their behalf and avail of the electronic herd register.”

He said that he was pleased to see that “the Department is making every effort to expand the range of electronic services to the farming community by providing a facility for farmers to use an agent.”  The Agency/Agent can be a Teagasc advisor, an agricultural consultant, local vet, family member or any third party that the keeper nominates for this purpose.

Farmers can download the necessary application forms to engage the services of an agent from the Department's website at www.agriculture.gov.ie under Animal Identification and Movement.

Concluding, the Minister summarised the benefits to farmers who sign up with AIM on the Department’s online services at www.agfood.ie. These farmers can

• Use the electronic online herd register facility instead of the manual “blue-book”
• Register calf births online
• Obtain a Certificate of Compliance (permission to move cattle from one farm directly to another farm)
• View details of animals currently in the herd on the AIM system
• View details of movements into and out of their herd
• View the most recent TB and Brucellosis test dates for individual animals including those moved into the herd
• View herd profiles for dates in the past.

Any farmer wishing to obtain more information on the Department’s online services may log directly onto www.agfood.ie or contact the Department’s Online Helpdesk on 1890 252 118 to register over the telephone.

View this Press Release as a PDF: DAFMPR 08/2015 (pdf 124Kb) 

Date Released: 26 January 2015