Scottish farm compliance: cattle ID, animal welfare, nitrate zones and conditionality

Farming in Scotland is regulated separately from England. Livestock identification, animal welfare, nitrate pollution and farm support conditions are all devolved, and each has its own Scottish regulations, regulator and penalties. This guide brings the main rules together for a Scottish farm, croft or livestock business.

For England, see the England cattle welfare, livestock identification and NVZ guides. Those guides apply the England regulations and cannot be used in Scotland.

Which rules apply to you

• You keep cattle: tag and register every calf with ScotEID, hold a passport, keep a holding register and report every movement. Follow the cattle welfare rules, including the calf rules if you rear calves.
• You keep pigs or poultry: follow the pig welfare rules in Schedule 6, or the meat chicken or laying hen rules in Schedules 2 and 3, and the Scottish Government's welfare guidance for your species.
• Any part of your farm is in a nitrate vulnerable zone: follow the 2008 Action Programme Regulations for the whole farm.
• You claim Scottish farm support: meet cross compliance on all your land, including the nitrate, cattle identification and welfare rules above. A breach of any of them can cut your payments.

Cross-compliance and conditionality

Nitrate vulnerable zones

Cattle identification and ScotEID registration

Cattle movement reporting

Animal welfare on the farm

The same Regulations, the Welfare of Farmed Animals (Scotland) Regulations 2010, cover every farmed species. Schedule 1 applies to all farmed animals, and each species has its own schedule. Inspectors can be appointed by the Scottish Ministers or by your local council.

Cattle

Pigs

Poultry

Who checks what, and what happens if you get it wrong

Steps to get compliant

1. Check whether your land is in a nitrate vulnerable zone on the Scottish Government's NVZ maps, and write your fertiliser and manure plan before 1 March if it is.
2. Register your holding and your cattle. Get a holding number from RPID, register with APHA and ScotEID, and tag every calf on time.
3. Set up your holding register and record every birth, death and movement within the deadlines.
4. Check your welfare set-up against your species' schedule: space, inspection, lighting, feed, water and records. Make sure everyone who works with your animals has read the guidance.
5. Notify the Scottish Ministers if you plan to stock meat chickens above 33 kg per square metre, at least 15 working days beforehand.
6. Declare your Whole Farm Plan activities on your Single Application Form if you claim support.
7. Keep the records an inspector will ask for in one place: animal registers and passports, fertiliser and manure records, medicine and mortality records.