Food and beverage
Livestock: movements and treatments
What you must be able to show for every animal that comes in, goes out or is treated.
A livestock holding has been recording the same things for years: which animals come in, what goes out, what is treated and with what. The problem is rarely not having it: it lives in a notebook, in the vet's memory and in a drawer of prescriptions, and when someone asks it has to be reconstructed.
The four things you are asked for
| Front | What you must be able to show | Where it usually fails |
|---|---|---|
| Identification | Which animals are present and since when | Arrivals and departures noted late |
| Movements | Where each intake came from and where each departure went | The movement document stays on paper |
| Treatments | What was administered, to which animal, when and who prescribed it | Noted at the time and never written up |
| Feed | Which feed, from which supplier and which batch | Delivery notes filed with the invoices |
Important
The third row decides inspections and ages worst. What gets checked is not only that the treatment is recorded: it is that the recording date and the administration date agree, and that the treated animal can be followed through to its departure. A notebook written up in bulk at month end does not evidence that, even if the content is true.
The hardest and most important point
Watch out
A treatment's **withdrawal period** — the time that must pass before that animal or its output can go for consumption — only works if the treated animal is identified and its departure controlled. If treatment is recorded by pen or by batch without knowing exactly which animals received it, that control becomes an estimate. And that is the part that cannot be fixed afterwards.
How to organise it without changing how you work
- 1
Photograph the document at the moment
Movement document, prescription, feed delivery note. From a phone, in the shed.
- 2
The animal or batch as the thread
Everything hangs off it: arrival, treatment, feed and departure.
- 3
Warnings for what expires
Health scheme tests, certifications, equipment and facility checks.
- 4
And the vet supplying from their side
Let them upload theirs by their link, with no account, instead of sending it by messaging.
What changes if you sell to industry or a retail chain
Worth knowing
Which registers are mandatory, the recording deadlines and what must be retained depend on the species, the region and the certification scheme. **Confirm what applies to you with your vet or your adviser**; this describes how to keep it findable, not what the rules require.
›Can we keep using the notebook?
As a record yes; what does not hold up is reconstructing at month end what happened on the 3rd.
›What about sheds with no signal?
Photograph and upload on the way out; what matters is not leaving it for the office.
›Can the vet see the history?
With scoped access, yes, and it usually shortens consultations a lot.
A real case
The situation
A holding notes treatments in a notebook and writes them up at month end.
What you do
- Photographs the prescription at the time and links it to the treated animal
What you get
In an inspection, the recording date matches the administration date and departures can be controlled.
The situation
Movements are noted in a notebook in the shed.
What you do
- Records at the moment, from a phone
What you get
The data reaches the office legible.
The situation
A treatment is recorded and nobody revisits the withdrawal period.
What you do
- Lets the period warn by itself
What you get
The count does not depend on remembering.
The situation
An inspection asks about one specific animal.
What you do
- Checks its movement and treatment history
What you get
You answer from the record.
The situation
The vet's prescription stays on paper.
What you do
- Captures it and attaches it to the animal or batch
What you get
The paper stops being the only copy.
The situation
Temporary staff arrive and record differently.
What you do
- Uses the same record for everyone
What you get
The history is consistent.
This article answers
- livestock holding register
- animal movement documentation
- veterinary treatment records
- documentary control on a farm