Extended opening hours for cattle registration telephony service.
To assist farmers with the registration of calf births during the forthcoming spring calving period, the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) plans to extend the opening hours of the cattle registration telephony system to 8:00pm each Wednesday evening from 6 March to 29 May 2019.
DAERA would encourage all farmers to use the APHIS online system to notify all calf births as it is quick, easy and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. However, for those farmers who currently don’t have access to APHIS Online, please consider registering your calf births by phone.
The telephony system, which is operated by specially trained DAERA Direct staff on a dedicated and secure telephone number, provides herd keepers with access to quick, error free transactions which can be completed without the need for paper forms or a visit to a DAERA Direct office.
DAERA Deputy Secretary, Fiona McCandless, explained: “The late night opening will be particularly beneficial to farmers who may have difficulty completing telephone notifications during normal office hours. The service is very straightforward to use and as the animal details are inputted immediately, telephone registrations will greatly reduce the likelihood of calves receiving late notification statuses and avoid delays around the inputting of BVD test results.”
The telephony system, which can also be used to notify bovine deaths and confirm cattle purchased at a livestock mart into the buyer’s herd, is available Monday to Friday on 0300 200 7855 from 9:00am to 5:00pm, and to 8:00pm on Wednesday evenings between 6 March and 29 May.
All calls are recorded and, similar to paper notifications, securely stored should a caller wish to check or verify the information provided at a later date.
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