Try harder on passports – NBA

THE NATIONAL Beef Association is urging farmers to make an even bigger effort to get cattle passport applications in on time.

The NBA is alarmed at the continuing high number of late registrations for passports and has said farmers must take the consequences of late applications more seriously.

The most recent figures from the British Cattle Movement Service show that there have been over 22,000 late applications since the 27 day deadline was introduced in Oct 2003.

Almost 4500 applications were just a day late and 12,375 applications arrived within a week of the cut off point.

“Too much valuable production is being lost because male cattle, which account for half of the failed applications, have no commercial value without a passport,” said NBA vice-chairman Keith Redpath.

“The only option is to dispose of them before they incur more cost because they cannot be traded legally.”

The NBA said it acknowledged the frustration felt by breeders but said the only way to avoid more economic pain was to make sure that applications got to BCMS on time.

“EU regulations make it impossible for BCMS or DEFRA to take a more lenient approach,” said Mr Redpath.

“An amnesty for late applications, a fine instead of passport withdrawl, a more relaxed attitude to applications that are less than week late or a temporary suspension of the current policy until the message sinks in are simply not an option.”

Mr Redpath said it was clear that too many farmers were still putting too much trust in the Post Office and thousands of them had already been let down badly.

The obvious solution was to send applications to BCMS by email, but if this was impossible they must make sure all applications were sent ten days before the 27 day deadline.