IFA Animal Health Project Team Chairman John Waters said the Department of Agriculture requirement for farmers to have separate herd numbers for each land parcel more than 20 miles from their home farm is bureaucratic, costly, inconvenient and unnecessary. 

Mr Waters said if farmers are forced to have separate herd numbers for land parcels on their holdings, they will have to carry out pre-movement blood testing and CMMS notification each time they move animals on their land. Further to these difficulties, farmers will be unable to lease grazing ground outside 20 miles of their holdings without securing a separate herd number for the land parcel. 

Mr Waters said IFA has requested an urgent meeting with the Department of Agriculture and is calling for this issue to be revisited immediately.