Goats are written into the sheep rules, so most of the paperwork is the same. The differences are few, and they are the ones that catch goat keepers out. Here is the England position and where the other nations part company.
In England a goat keeper needs a CPH number from RPA and a herd mark from APHA. Tag every kid on its birth holding within 6 months if reared indoors, 9 months if outdoors, or before it leaves. Record tagging and movements in the holding register within 36 hours, and report arrivals within 3 days. Unlike sheep, goats do not have to carry an EID tag. Return the annual inventory by 31 December and keep the register for 3 years after the last goat leaves. Our sheep movement reporting guide covers the shared systems.
The same legal framework as sheep. You need a CPH number for the land, a herd mark from APHA for your tags, a holding register, identification on every goat, movement reporting, and an annual inventory. The GOV.UK keeper guide treats sheep and goat registers as one subject, and a keeper is anyone with day-to-day care of the animals, owner or not.
The rules apply to a pair of pet goats as much as a milking herd. If you keep two goats in the paddock, you still register the holding, tag the kids, record moves and return the inventory. Our CPH number guide covers registering.
What differs from sheep is narrow. England allows goats to be tagged without EID, and kids intended for slaughter can carry a visual slaughter tag. Everything else, the 36 hours, the 3-day report, the 31 December inventory, you already know from sheep.
The GOV.UK goat tagging guidance splits goats three ways. A kid intended for slaughter before 12 months can carry one slaughter tag, either a yellow EID tag or a visual ear tag, showing UK and the herd mark. A kid not intended for slaughter, and any goat kept past 12 months, needs two tags with the same official ID number.
An adult tag pair shows UK, a 0 if the tag is electronic, the 6-digit mark and a 5-digit number unique to the animal. The approved pairs include two plain ear tags, an ear tag and a tattoo, an ear tag and a green pastern band, or a yellow EID tag with any of those. A bolus needs a black ear tag printed with a B. Plain tags may be any colour except yellow, red or black.
Buy goats that arrive with two correct tags and you do not retag. Buy tags only from RPA-approved suppliers, quoting your CPH number and herd mark. Goats born on a temporary CPH or common land use the herd mark of your permanent holding. Replace a lost or damaged tag within 28 days of noticing.
If you are unsure whether a kid will go for slaughter, use two adult tags from the start.
In England the approved combinations include pairs with no EID tag, so EID is a choice for goats. Scotland states it plainly: EID is voluntary for goats. The Welsh Government's guidance says there is no requirement to electronically identify goats because the UK goat population is below the regulatory threshold of 160,000.
Export is the exception. The Scottish goat identification guidance says goats born after 31 December 2009 and intended for export must be fully EID identified, and the Welsh guidance says the same. Selling a goat abroad means an EID tag.
Northern Ireland sets goats apart from sheep. The DAERA sheep and goat guidance says goats carry two conventional tags with matching numbers, where lambs need an EID tag set. From 30 June 2025 all newborn sheep and goats in Northern Ireland must carry XI prefixed tags, not UK.
My advice for a keeper who may one day sell abroad, or who runs a flock alongside goats: use EID anyway. A reader at the gate saves time with every movement.
England and Wales give the same clock: tag on the holding of birth within 6 months of birth if reared indoors, within 9 months if outdoors, or before the kid leaves the holding if that comes first. Scotland says six months if housed overnight and nine if extensive. The usual trap is sale day. A kid that leaves untagged is already late.
The change of plan is the other trap. If you keep a kid beyond 12 months, you must replace a slaughter tag with two adult tags before it reaches 12 months, whether or not it is later slaughtered. In England, one of the two may be a yellow EID tag, or both may be visual.
For a kid not born on your holding, you may only upgrade if you can trace it to its birth holding by scanning the slaughter tag. Otherwise it must go for slaughter before 12 months.
Our lambing and kidding paperwork checklist sets the kidding-time order of work, and the sheep EID tags and flock register guide covers the replica and red tag rules that apply to both species.
In England the register records the first tagging of each kid, replacement tags, movements on and off, deaths, and the year-end total. The GOV.UK register guidance wants tagging, replacements, movements and deaths in within 36 hours. For a first tag record the date, the official ID number (or the herd mark for a slaughter tag), year of birth, and breed and genotype if known.
Keep the register for 3 years after the last animal dies or leaves. Paper, spreadsheet, software, LIS or the Defra template are all acceptable.
Scotland sets its own register timescales in the Scottish Government's holding register guidance. Wales requires individual records for goats born after 31 December 2009 in a herd record book, with a batch record for slaughter-tagged kids.
A goat register is not a medicine book. Treatments sit under their own 5-year rule, in our holding register guide and the medicine record 5-year rule guide.
Through the same systems as sheep. In England, the GOV.UK movement reporting guidance says you must report on movements within 3 days of the animal arriving, and the sender cannot do it for you. The sender reports the off movement, online through LIS or on the paper LIS-1, and you confirm or report the arrival.
Standstill follows arrival. England and Wales hold other livestock for 6 days, Scotland for 13, and Northern Ireland has no whole-farm standstill. A flock of goats can be perfectly reported and still break standstill, so see our sheep movement reporting guide for the nation-by-nation table.
Northern Ireland works through the movement document: DAERA says one is completed each time goats leave the holding, including moves to common grazing and shows, kept with the register for at least 3 years.
Goats going to a show are a round trip: report both the off movement and the return on movement.
The GOV.UK annual inventory guidance has no separate goat rule. Defra sends a letter or email at the end of November, you count on 1 December, and you return the inventory by 31 December. Write the 1 December number in your register. If nothing has arrived by 11 December, contact Defra farm surveys.
Medicines are where goats feel different. Fewer products carry a goat authorisation than cattle or sheep, so vets often prescribe under the cascade. The GOV.UK cascade guidance sets a minimum withdrawal of 1.5 times the longest authorised period, or 28 days for meat where no food-producing product is authorised, and 7 days for milk where none is authorised for milk-producing animals. Your vet sets the actual period, and our medicine withdrawal periods guide explains how to read it.
Fallen goats go the same way as other farm animals, collected for approved disposal, as in our fallen stock disposal rules. Record the death within 36 hours of finding it.
Not as a rule. England's approved combinations include pairs with no EID tag, Scotland says EID is voluntary for goats, and Wales says there is no requirement. Goats born after 31 December 2009 intended for export must be fully EID identified, so check before selling abroad.
On the holding of birth, within 6 months if reared indoors, 9 months if outdoors, or before the kid leaves, whichever is soonest. This applies in England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland use six months if housed overnight and nine otherwise.
They are the same kind of thing. GOV.UK says flock or herd mark, and the Welsh guidance calls the sheep one a flock mark and the goat one a herd mark. APHA issues it, it is printed on your tags, and you quote it with your CPH number when ordering tags.
For 3 years after the last animal dies or leaves the holding. You can keep it on paper, a spreadsheet, LIS or farm software, or use the Defra template, provided every required item is there and you can produce it when an officer asks.
Not in England. The GOV.UK guidance and its template cover sheep and goats together, with a register for each holding. Record the species clearly against each entry, because the tagging rules differ between the two.