Becoming a sheep or goat keeper: end-to-end compliance

Keeping sheep or goats in England — even one pet goat or a few smallholding ewes — makes you a livestock keeper in the eyes of the law. That triggers a short, ordered set of duties under the Sheep and Goats (Records, Identification and Movement) (England) Order 2009 (SI 2009/3219): you need somewhere legally registered to keep them, a unique number that identifies your flock or herd, tags in every animal's ears, a written record of what arrives and leaves, and a system for reporting movements.

None of this is hard, but the sequence matters. You cannot lawfully bring animals onto land that is not registered, and you cannot lawfully tag them without a flock or herd mark. Budget four to six weeks from first application to first animal on the ground — most of that is waiting for APHA to process paperwork.

Every piece of land used to keep livestock needs a County Parish Holding (CPH) number. This is your location identifier — APHA uses it to find you if disease breaks out, and every other system (flock mark, movement reporting, holding register) hangs off it. You apply to the Rural Payments Agency and it usually comes through in one to four weeks. Do this first. Nothing else works without it.

Once you have a CPH, you apply to APHA for a flock mark (sheep) or herd mark (goats). This is a six-digit number that will appear on every ear tag for every animal you ever breed or retag. Treat it as permanent. Apply on APHA form SGG1. Allow two to three weeks. You cannot order tags without it, and you cannot receive animals from another keeper until you have somewhere to record them — which means you need the mark before you need the first animal.

Every sheep and goat in England must be identified with approved ear tags within set deadlines — six months if reared indoors (housed overnight), nine months if reared outdoors, and before first movement for anything leaving the holding sooner. Breeding animals need a full double-tag set (one EID, one visual, both bearing your flock mark and a unique individual number). Animals going straight to slaughter before twelve months can be identified with a single slaughter tag, which is cheaper and simpler for smallholders finishing lambs for freezer or direct sale.

The holding register is the written (or electronic) record of every sheep and goat on your CPH — arrivals, departures, births, deaths, and the annual inventory count. It is a legal requirement under SI 2009/3219 and the single document an APHA inspector will ask for first. Set it up before your first animal arrives. Retrofitting from memory is painful and rarely accurate. You can keep it on paper, in a spreadsheet, or in flock management software — the format does not matter, but the content and retention period (three years minimum) do.

Every time a sheep or goat crosses your holding boundary — arriving, leaving, or passing through a market — you must report it to the Livestock Information Service (LIS) within three days. Movements also trigger a standstill: when sheep or goats arrive on your holding, no other sheep, goats, cattle, or pigs can leave for six days (in Scotland the standard standstill is thirteen days for cattle, sheep and goats). The standstill is how England prevents disease silently spreading through the sale ring. Read both guides together before your first animal arrives. The rules are simple once you've seen them in sequence, but easy to breach by accident on day one.

Once you are registered, tagged, and reporting movements, the rhythm of the year takes over. The single biggest annual duty is the sheep and goat inventory: every keeper must count all animals on the holding as of 1 December each year and record and return the total by 31 December. This is separate from your holding register and is how government tracks national flock and herd size. First-year keepers often miss this because they registered mid-year and do not realise the inventory applies from their first December on the system.

The second common pitfall is tag failure — animals lose tags, especially in the first few weeks after tagging, and the register must show you replaced them promptly. The third is under-reporting private sales: a private sale of a single ewe to a neighbour is still a reportable movement. None of these are aggressive traps, but they are the three things APHA inspections almost always look at.

Where to get help: APHA customer services (03000 200 301) for anything identification or disease related, the RPA helpline for CPH and land questions, your local Trading Standards for market-side issues, and the National Sheep Association or British Goat Society for peer advice. Keep those numbers in your register.