The British Cattle Movement Service (BCMS) is the organisation responsible for maintaining a database of all bovine animals in the United Kingdom, except for Northern Ireland, which has a separate database maintained by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. It was established in the wake of the Bovine spongiform encephalopathy crisis in the UK, and is part of the Rural Payments Agency. Other member states of the European Union have similar cattle tracing systems.
Every bovine animal in the United Kingdom (as elsewhere in the European Union) has a unique number, shown both on an ear tag in each ear and on a paper cattle passport which is held by the current keeper of the animal (the system covers both cattle and other bovine animals such as water buffalo and bison). The number and passport remain with the animal throughout its life, and is recorded by the slaughterhouse at its death, allowing traceability of the beef. The BCMS central database is called the Cattle Tracing System, and works alongside the physical passport to record the births, deaths and movements of all cattle.
Read more about British Cattle Movement Service: Cattle Tracing System, Cattle Passport, Ear Tag Number
Famous quotes containing the words british, cattle, movement and/or service:
“History is made in the class struggle and not in bed.”
—Alex Mitchell, British left-wing journalist. quoted in Sunday Times (London, 29 Dec. 1985)
“Young steers become old cattle from that day,
Electric limits to their widest senses.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“The American suffrage movement has been, until very recently, altogether a parlor affair, absolutely detached from the economic needs of the people.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“Human life consists in mutual service. No grief, pain, misfortune, or “broken heart,” is excuse for cutting off one’s life while any power of service remains. But when all usefulness is over, when one is assured of an unavoidable and imminent death, it is the simplest of human rights to choose a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one.”
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935)