Livestock movements, identification and tracing: cattle - information for EU Member States
- Competent authority
- Model of eartag used for identification of bovine animals
- The type of UK ear tag numbers
- Specimen of passport
- Herd record for bovine animals
Competent authority
Area 5E
9 Millbank
c/o 17 Smith Square
London
SW1P 3JR
Contact: Andrew Beech
Tel: +44 20 7238 5635
Fax: +44 20 7238 6214
E-Mail: andrew.j.beech@defra.gsi.gov.uk
Please note: Address for return of Cattle Passports:
British Cattle Movement Service
Specific duties team
Curwen Road
Workington
CA14 2DD
Model of eartag used for identification of bovine animals
The main eartag (known in GB as the Primary eartag) is yellow, plastic, two-piece eartag which conforms with Article 3 of Commission Regulation (EC) No 262/97 from 1 January 2000 eartags are supplied in the numeric format.
Primary tags
Secondary eartag
This eartag can be the same design as the main eartag or an approved alternative.
Management eartag may also be used as a secondary eartag. It may be the same design as the primary eartag but management information concerning the animal may be added to the lower part of the eartag. This eartag may be any colour.
Button eartag area round two-piece, plastic, button design which may be any colour. An example of the button eartag is:
Metal eartag area one-piece metal design. An example of a metal eartag is:
Barcoded eartag
Council Regulation (EC) No 911/2004 also provides for an option to include a barcode on an official tag. Whilst GB chose not to introduce this requirement, some EU Member States decided to make it compulsory for a barcode to be included on official tags.
Please note there is no requirement for cattle born in GB to be identified with eartags bearing a barcode. This includes animals going for export. It is entirely up to the importer and exporter to decide through commercial arrangement whether or not this is necessary. British eartag manufacturers are permitted to issue such tags as necessary.
The type of UK eartag numbers
There are some important dates for tagging cattle in the UK. The summary below provides guidance on when calves must be tagged according to the date they were born.
Date of birth |
Tagging requirements |
Example of tagging format |
| 1 January 2000 to current (1 July 2000 made compulsory) | Ear tag in each ear with the same unique numeric (numbers only) identity for the lifetime of the animal. Includes UK at the beginning. | UK666666 500046 |
| 1 January 1998 to 31 December 1999 | Ear tag in each ear (double-tagging) with the same unique-numeric identity for the lifetime of the animal. Includes UK at the beginning. | UKAB1234 56789 UK A1234 56789 |
| 1 April 1995 to 31 December 1997 | At least one ear tag with a unique alpha-numeric identity for the lifetime of the animal. Includes UK at the beginning. | * UKAB1234 56789 * UK A1234 56789 |
| 15 October 1990 to 1 April 1995 | Ear tag or tattoo | ** A1234 123 |
* cattle that have this ear tag format may be exported so long as they are born on or after the 01 August 1996.
** cattle with this ear tag format are born before 01 August 1996 and are therefore NOT eligible for export. Tag format may however appear on the passport as the dam identification.
Specimen of Passport
Copies of pages from the ‘new style’ passport for Great Britain issued from 28 September 1998. Passports issued from 1 January 2000 may be supplied in the numeric format. Alpha numeric passports continued to be issued until the end of July 2000 when they were replaced by the all numeric style passport.
First page
Movement recording page
Notification to the computer database page
Barcode
Herd Record for Bovine Animals
The form for records 
(15 KB) is required to be kept by all cattle keepers in Great Britain.
This record may be kept as a manual or held electronically.
Page last modified:
8 February, 2008
Page published: 12 February, 2007