New licensing scheme for common grazing
New licensing scheme for common grazing
SHEEP and other livestock grazing lowland areas can now move to open or common grazing, under a new licensing scheme announced by MAFF last week.
MAFF says the scheme will run for a short period and will only allow producers to move cattle, sheep and goats to common grazing, such as open hill and moorland.
It does not allow for movement from common grazing and will not allow animals to move from high-risk to low-risk foot-and-mouth areas.
Application forms to move sheep, cattle or goats onto common grazing are available from local authorities and MAFF animal health offices. Movement licences will be issued by local authorities where the movement to common grazing is within a controlled area.
Also covered are movements from premises in an infected area to open grazing contiguous to the enclosed land. But this is permitted only when stock are returning to the open grazing that they came from, says MAFF.
It is also essential that no sheep, other than those from the open grazing to which they are to be returned, have moved onto the premises of origin between Feb 13 and 23. *