The rules on missing cattle tags have been relaxed in NI and farmers with less than 15% of the herd with a missing tag at a cross-compliance inspection will not be under threat of a penalty.

The change comes after lobbying by farming leaders who pointed out that the existing rules here were more draconian than in any other part of these islands, and after the Department sought the views of European Commission auditors during a visit to NI at the start of the summer.

It means that the original thresholds publicised in June 2014 are no longer relevant. They threatened farmers with cross-compliance penalties where more than 10% of tags were missing to a maximum of 20 animals.

The new 15% threshold will be retrospectively applied from 1 January 2015, but at the Stormont agriculture committee this week, Pauline Rooney, director of EU area-based schemes in DARD, said that the Department will in practice apply the change back to 2014.

Where a farmer is found at a cattle identification inspection to have some cattle with tags missing, but the total is less than 15% of the herd, they will receive a warning letter from DARD. There will be no penalty if the missing tags are replaced within 28 days of inspection.

The DARD application of cross-compliance rules relating to cattle tagging was one of a number of issues assessed by EU auditors when they visited NI earlier this year. Their audit checked DARD application of cross-compliance rules for the years 2013 to 2015.

While they were mostly satisfied with what they found, they highlighted six areas where compliance with the rules was weak. DARD faces a disallowance from Europe as a result, although the extent of that fine is not yet known.

According to Rooney, three of the issues have already been addressed in existing DARD controls. However, DARD must now take action in the other areas, believed to relate to late notifications of registration and movement of bovine animals and compliance with sheep and goat identification requirements. Changes to rules for farmers are likely from 1 January 2016.

A final issue raised by auditors relating to the reporting of sheep and goat movements is being challenged by DARD and Defra through the European Court of Justice. “We believe it does not fall under cross compliance,” explained Rooney.