Animal identification-related queries recorded on APHIS will have to be resolved before an animal can enter the food chain under new rules proposed by DAERA vets.

The issue affects thousands of cattle in NI, and is unique to here given our world-leading animal traceability system (APHIS), but it could end up as a significant financial cost to individual farmers.

At present, an animal with a status such as an identification query (IDQ mark) or a late date of birth notification (DOBQ) cannot move to a mart for sale, but can go to a meat plant for slaughter. But DAERA has told meat plants that they will have to conduct an investigation on these animals (a checklist of questions has been drafted) prior to slaughter. If the information accumulated at this stage is not to the satisfaction of the official DAERA vet on duty in the meat plant, the animal will be killed separately and skipped, with the farmer suffering the financial loss.

Under veterinary rules, once an animal is taken off the trailer in the meat plant, it must be slaughtered (it cannot be taken home). Therefore, the meat plants argue that the whole issue is best resolved on-farm, not in a pressurised factory environment.

On enquiry, Conall Donnelly, the chief executive of the NI Meat Exporters Association (NIMEA) told the Irish Farmers Journal that a factory lairage is not the right place to undertake this work.

“On a farm, more information is available, and better decisions can be made that can’t be made in a factory. If it can be resolved, it would leave the farmer with more options with regard to marketing.