Contemporaneous Herd Registers

1. Under EC Regulation (EC) 1760/2000 Article 7. 4 and Cattle Identification (Enforcement) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998 herd registers may be kept in a computerised format.

2. When the age of an animal, and therefore eligibility for human consumption, is queried at point of slaughter a number of checks are completed to validate date of birth information. One check is based on the farmers herd records. One of the conditions of this check is that all entries into the record (either on computer or into a book) are made at the same time as events (Contemporaneous),  for example - births and that all entries are in chronological order. If the herd book check is satisfactory the original date of birth on APHIS is accepted and the carcase is allowed to proceed for human consumption.

3. To decide if a herd record is contemporaneous a DARD official carries out a six point check (Herd Register Inspection Report). Validation checks on a computerised record are more difficult because a user could potentially make amendments without an audit record being made, that is - adjustments / alterations/ deletions to the record could be made to make the record appear contemporaneous for the purpose of an inspection. If no audit record is available, data queries cannot be validated. This may result in animals being designated as unfit for human consumption.

4. DARD has a process for accepting herd management software programmes as valid Contemporaneous Herd Records. This allows DARD officials to carry out the same Herd Register Inspection Report as is currently done for manual herd records.

5. To be accepted by DARD software is have to be tested against and meet the requirements (Contemporaneous computerised herd record requirements)

6. Information on Notes for Guidance, breed codes and MC3 formats are available on request from Animal Health, Welfare and Trade Branch, Dundonald House, Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast.