From 1 January 2017 CTS links will be replaced with a new system called ‘ScotMoves'.
CTS links in Scotland are not compliant with Regulation (EC) 1760/2000 and pose a risk to disease control, disease eradication and the protection of public health. The current CTS links also raise a risk in terms of disallowance to the CAP payment fund.
In the event of a disease outbreak inspectors would not be able to confirm the location of cattle on a holding with a CTS link until such time as they visited the holding. CTS links have also created problems for the Scottish industry led BVD eradication programme. Industry leaders recognise that the use of CTS links pose a potential risk to health status.
The Scottish Government and industry recognise that CTS links have become an integral part of livestock keeping practice across Scotland which reduces the movement reporting burden for keepers. With this in mind, Scottish Government and Industry established a joint working group to consider the impact that removing CTS links would have on cattle keepers and how best to reduce this impact to a minimum without jeopardising traceability.
The joint Scottish Government Industry working group has worked to make the transition from CTS links to the new system known as 'ScotMoves' as simple as possible without compromising disease control or public health. The ScotMoves system will be hosted on the ScotEID database system. ScotEID currently hosts the sheep, goat and pig movement systems together with the BVD eradication programme.
Development of an online holding register will allow keepers to record all internal movements as simply as possible. There are a number of scenarios where the ScotMoves system can be used, for example:
The new system will comply with the EU regulatory requirements and reduce the risk of disallowance from the CAP fund. The new system will also give Scottish Government access to all cattle movement data in Scotland and provide a central record of all cattle locations in the event of a disease outbreak.
It is important to bear in mind that the new ScotMoves system does not place any additional requirements on keepers. It is simply a new way to record the same information that they previously recorded in their on-farm holding register.
We hope to further develop this system in due course for all cattle keepers who would like to use it as an online herd register.
All other ‘ON’ and ‘OFF’ movements out with the keepers main business will continue to be reported to CTS mainly by markets.
You must register with ScotEID if you wish to use ScotMoves.
Business rules on the new ScotMoves system can be found here.
A detailed Q&A guidance document is also available to answer what the new changes may mean for you can be found here.