Register with the British Cattle Movement Service
Before you take responsibility for cattle, bison or buffalo as a keeper, you must register with the British Cattle Movement Service (BCMS).
The British Cattle Movement Service (BCMS):
- maintains the Cattle Tracing System (CTS) database
- issues cattle passports
- processes information from keepers about cattle births, movements and deaths
- answers enquiries from cattle keepers
If you are going to keep cattle, bison or buffalo, you must register with BCMS before you move any of these animals on to your holding, because there is a legal requirement that keepers must report movements on or off a holding to BCMS within 3 days of the movement.
Before you start
You must have a County Parish Holding (CPH) number and be registered correctly with the authority that issued it before you can register with BCMS.
You will also need to provide BCMS with the holding address so that they can contact you.
How to register with BCMS
You can complete the ‘New holding Registration Request Form’ and email this to bcmsenquiries@rpa.gov.uk or Contact BCMS and tell them that you are going to keep cattle, bison or buffalo. They will register your details and send you:
- a letter of confirmation that your holding is registered on CTS
- a letter with a reference number to use if you enrol with CTS Online and a password in order to use approved farm software using CTS Web Services
- your bar code labels
You can choose whether to send and receive information to BCMS online or by phone or in paper form.
Contact
British Cattle Movement Service
Curwen Road
Derwent Howe
Workington
Cumbria
CA14 2DD
Email bcmsenquiries@rpa.gov.uk
BCMS helpline 0345 050 1234
Helpline for cattle keepers in Wales 0345 050 3456
Normal BCMS helpline opening hours: Monday to Friday 8:30am to 5pm, closed weekends and bank holidays. All calls charged at local rate.
Last updated 30 June 2020 + show all updates
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Added link to 'New holding Registration Request Form'
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First published.
