BCMS ending

[Chae1]

Any dealings I have had with scoteid have been very positive. I think they'll do a good job of running it.

 

[Top Tip.]

Wot 'appens when stock cross the border?

We bought tack sheep from Sedgemoor a few years ago, and I entered the tag numbers given on the invoice and movement license.
When we came to sell, the tags were scanned and were ..... Scottish.
Auctioneers didn't want to know, so I phoned ScotEid. As said, they were very helpful. But the holding which consigned these sheep had had NO off movements recorded for several years.

So when I explained these animals were now in Cornwall, ready to go fat, having come in via Somerset but wearing holding of birth Scottish tartan tags - the phone went very quiet.

With no 'Off' movements logged, the holding these sheep were born on must have a lot of berluddy sheep by now then.

If these animals were privately traded off the farm off birth I can quite understand how scoteid had no track of them. This is also part of the reason why farm assurance breaks down when it comes to the sheep job.

 

[Nithsdale]

BCMS/CTS is a privately run company contracted to govt.

Put simply Westminster have not renewed the contract. That's why when the switch to eID cattle tags comes it's a whole new company/office taking over.

Because ag. is devolved Westminster have panned off what should have been a single national database to the devolved parliaments.
ScoteID have been very good - already operating the sheep system (and dealing with thousands of cross border movements every year), they also run the Scottish BVD system.

They've proposed quite a few things for cattle eID which SGRPD have telt them is too complicated and won't work in the real world (movements must be notified BEFORE the animal moves, for example, and it can all only be done electronically) - poor/no internet connections, older farmers who simply can't use computers... they're also still pursuing using different frequency tags compared to England & Wales


Cattle eID has been delayed 3 times IIRC already because it isn't going to work. Here's hoping when it goes live it does - because it's all of us farmers with cattle who will be in trouble if anything is wrong

 

[manhill]

We need a common UK tracing system that involves one company providing it, not 3 different versions.
If the Union should split then the leavers can have any system they want (and pay for it).

 

[Princess Pooper]

BCMS and CTS have always been pretty reliable systems, easy to use and the people at the end of the phone are friendly and helpful even when you have personally made an almighty cock up that they have to fix for you.

I hope the same team will be running whatever replaces it. Given the government's reputation for IT systems, it will be nice to chat to a friendly Cumbrian when it inevitably goes horribly wrong.

Whilst they are excellent now, things were not quite what they should have been for the first 3 years, we had 'ghost cows' that kept re-appearing on the holding even though they had left years ago and been deleted several times.

 

[Av Gorritt]

Well, for one , I'll be sad to see the old BCMS / CTS service , ended and a new one in it's place . They have unfailingly been very helpful up there in Workington , when I've needed to speak to anybody , and also , very non- judgemental on the occasions when I've made a cock-up of things - in effect saying "Tell us what you've done - and when , and we'll take it from there to sort it . " I just hope that any replacements will be as accommodating .

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

This has been in the pipeline for a very long time. BCMS/CTS is a very old system that is run still by IBM and any tweaks to it are eye wateringly expensive.
It is also full of inaccuracies and there are many animals that are dead that may still be on there!!

What is a massive concern is to have 3 different systems as cattle do not stay where they were born. EID is a natural progression and many have already moved to it, but there have been complications because there is no standardised approved system. Scotland wants to run their EID system on a completely different frequency which I am told is not compatible with the readers that are already in use.

The new metal cattle ear tags with EID chips in should have far better retention than the plastic ones. Trials are continuing.

There will apparently be a new numbering system as well and hopefully the old system and the new will be able to continue in parallel but there was talk of having to retag, which would not please many of us.

While change is inevitable and the need to modernise essential let us hope sufficient lead time is given and people are sufficiently trained in how to use the system. There is no doubt that passports will disappear and we will move to a paperless system eventually for both cattle and sheep. This is all part of the LIP (Livestock Information Program) which I am told is running very late and there will still be paper sheep movement forms!!

 

[sexy lexy]

So why can't we get an updated 2021 version of bcms, it works perfectly, this is nothing but politics sadly.

 

[X344chap]

We need a common UK tracing system that involves one company providing it, not 3 different versions.
If the Union should split then the leavers can have any system they want (and pay for it).

It is split - animal welfare etc is a devolved matter and yes the SG will be paying for it. I wish more things were devolved starting with the DVLA....

 

[Whitepeak]

Hopefully they update the TB reporting at the same time. SAM (which is linked to BCMS) will only work on Internet explorer, which was discontinued in 2015!!

 

[holwellcourtfarm]

This has been in the pipeline for a very long time. BCMS/CTS is a very old system that is run still by IBM and any tweaks to it are eye wateringly expensive.
It is also full of inaccuracies and there are many animals that are dead that may still be on there!!

What is a massive concern is to have 3 different systems as cattle do not stay where they were born. EID is a natural progression and many have already moved to it, but there have been complications because there is no standardised approved system. Scotland wants to run their EID system on a completely different frequency which I am told is not compatible with the readers that are already in use.

The new metal cattle ear tags with EID chips in should have far better retention than the plastic ones. Trials are continuing.

There will apparently be a new numbering system as well and hopefully the old system and the new will be able to continue in parallel but there was talk of having to retag, which would not please many of us.

While change is inevitable and the need to modernise essential let us hope sufficient lead time is given and people are sufficiently trained in how to use the system. There is no doubt that passports will disappear and we will move to a paperless system eventually for both cattle and sheep. This is all part of the LIP (Livestock Information Program) which I am told is running very late and there will still be paper sheep movement forms!!

Should we be worried that many of the organisations involved in the livestock Information Company are also behind RT?

 

[Old Tup]

You couldn’t make it up.
One system, one type of tag.
End of.
BCMS…CTS has had its day….the basic system is suffering from many years of essential patches and upgrades.
There has to be a new system…
But to split it on the basis of devolvement is utterly bananas.

Workington staff are brilliant…..Real people who live in the Real World.

 

[sexy lexy]

How did the uk government allow this to happen?

 

[Hilly]

More division.