Cattle Passports

[Saffy]

Has anyone else sent off for a passport but not received it?

I really wondered what would happen. I emailed them and explained that I always make out the passport at the same time as I write the registration certificate as much of the info is the same. This proved very useful as the although it was a bull calf I had still birth notified and had the date that The Dexter Society had received my application on his paperwork. So I could tell The BCMS what date they should have received my application as well as the eartag of the calf, sire and dam. Fortunately they had received my application, it had got lost on its way back to me and they have re issued it free of charge.

However how I would have managed if I was still farming like I was years ago and had 150 calves a year born I don't know as I probably wouldn't have noticed until I went to sell it! So I'm sure big farmers must have dreadful problems with lost passports.

Stephanie

[Rob R]

I do mine online and print off the receipt for every application, movement and notification. I don't trust helplines or non-written information as it seems they have no powers to verify that what you're told on the phone is actually accurate. We sent a cow in on the OCDS some years ago and the RPA chap had told me that it would be fine with a tattoo as the offical ID, but when it got to the market they said we wouldn't get paid unless it had a tag that exactly matched the official ID. When I contacted the RPA to complain they said that the chap I spoke to no longer worked for them... (I did manage to get a tag made at short notice, but what a farce!).

[ann]

If you don't want to be buried with lots of paper work you can screen grab a copy of the print notice and save it in a file on you computer. Save a lot of paper, I do this with the birth notifications to.
Instead of printing the item go to preview option and screen grab a copy.