Cumbria cattle database plays minor role

15 August 1997

Cumbria cattle database plays minor role

By Tony McDougal

THE Government has admitted that its proposed headquarters for the British Cattle Movement Service at Workington, Cumbria, will only deal with paper-based transactions and will not be the cheapest site to establish.

And even though the service will be placed in the public sector, the Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has given the clearest indication yet that the livestock industry can expect to pay both the estimated £5m establishment and £15m running costs.

Farmers Weekly has learned that the main database will be within MAFFs Information Technology Directorate at Guildford, Surrey, which holds the cattle passport data, and will deal with 80% of the expected 80 million annual cattle movements electronically.

The 100 or so staff at the Workington site will deal with the remaining 20% of paper-based cattle movements, submitting details electronically to the main Guildford computer.