Over half of farmers inspected for cattle tagging identification failed the inspection last year.

Last year, 3,607 cattle identification and registration inspections were carried out and of this number 2,255 failed the inspection.

The number of cases, where breaches were detected, but no financial penalty was applied was, 1,538 for cattle, while 717 farmers received a financial penalty for breaching the rules.

Some 1,380 sheep and goat tagging inspections took place last year. The Department said that the number of cases, where breaches were detected, but no financial penalty was applied was 126, while 160 sheep and goat farmers were hit with a financial sanction for breaching the rules.

A total of 435 inspections on farms which had both beef and sheep also took place and the results of these inspections are included in the figures outlined previously.

Full inspections

In addition to the identification and registration (IDR) inspections, the Department also carried out 703 full cross-compliance inspections, which included both cattle and sheep elements.

In addition to the IDR inspections, for full cross-compliance inspections, the number of cases where breaches were detected, but no financial penalty was applied was 261 for cattle farmers and 20 for sheep farmers.

“The full cross-compliance inspections resulted in 121 penalties being applied for [cattle] breaches and 26 penalties being applied for [sheep/goat] breaches,” the Department said.