As previously notified to Members, to increase the accuracy of herd book information, and to help the work of the Society’s Herd Inspection Committee, Council has agreed that from 1st January 2020 all calves born to registered females in members’ herds should be ‘birth notified’ within 28 days of birth if they are not to be registered during this time. Animals that are registered in the first 28 days need not be birth notified.
Some key points around this are:
- There is no fee in relation to birth notifications. The normal registration fee will only be applied if a notified calf is later registered.
- In order to keep calving records accurate, all crossbred calves and dead calves born to registered cows must also be notified.
- Provision to carry out notifications will be made available online through the Taurus database and through the Office telephone service. The procedure in both cases will be very similar to the normal registration process, requiring the same information.
- Animals that are fully registered within 28 days of birth need not be birth notified. Births should only be notified if the calves are not to be registered in this 28-day period.
- There are four registration time periods (1-28 days, 29-90 days, 91-180 days and 181-365 days) and the registration fees in the younger age categories are lower (see Appendix A in the BLCS Byelaws for details https://bit.ly/2mUgZJI). Members will receive email reminders when ‘Notified’ calves are about to move from the first to the second category so that opportunities to register them at as low a cost as possible are not missed.
- Where members elect to do so, birth notification details will be automatically sent to BCMS to register the calf there and apply for its passport, in the same manner as the current service provided at calf registration. If you don’t already use this service please consider it to ensure that registration information logged with BCMS and the Society is the same for each animal.
- As and when members decide to register calves that have already been notified, it will be a very quick and simple tick-box process, since the notification stage will have gathered all the necessary registration information.
- Please note the new rule requiring first-calved females to be genotyped and parent-verified is not applicable when calves are birth-notified. They only apply when a calf is registered to such a female.
These changes are effective from 1st January 2020.
The Council believe this is an important measure in assisting the accuracy of the herdbook and a significant step forward in supporting its inspection process.
For any enquiry, please get in touch with the Society office 02476696500.
