Enter the date a movement happened and where your holding is registered. This works out the reporting deadline, a safer submit-by date, and which national system the movement goes to.
Enter a movement date above to see the deadline.
A cattle movement must be reported within 3 days, counting the day of the move as day one, so it must be received by day 3. Which system that report goes to depends on where the holding is registered: BCMS for England, ScotEID for Scotland, EIDCymru for Wales, and NIFAIS for Northern Ireland.
The day the movement happens counts as day one. This calculator adds 2 more days to reach day 3, the statutory deadline for the report to be received. It also shows a day earlier, day two, as a recommended submit-by date, because the 3-day rule measures when the report is received, not when it was sent, and giving yourself a day's buffer covers a postal delay or a website having a bad day.
Report online wherever possible rather than by post. Online submission and receipt happen at the same moment, which removes the guesswork this calculator's buffer date is otherwise protecting you against.
The nation that matters is where the holding is registered, not where the animal came from or is going to. A holding registered in Wales sending cattle to an English market still reports that movement to EIDCymru, because that is where the sending holding's own records live. If both ends of a movement are on holdings in different nations, each holding reports to its own nation's system separately.
This tool only does the date arithmetic and points you to the right system. For everything else, how each system accepts a report, what happens if you're late, and how this differs from the separate standstill rule, see the 3-day movement rule guide.
FarmHQ records a movement the moment it happens, works out which of the four national systems your holding actually reports to, and drafts the report ready to file well before the 3 days are anywhere close to running out.
See how FarmHQ worksIt takes the movement date you enter, counts that day as day one, and adds 2 more days to reach day 3, the statutory deadline for the movement to be reported and received by the relevant national system.
Because the 3-day deadline is for the report being received, not sent. Treating day 2 as your real deadline leaves a buffer for a postal delay, a phone queue, or a website having a bad day, so the calculator shows both the statutory deadline and a safer submit-by date.
Whichever one matches the nation you select: BCMS via CTS Online for England, ScotEID for Scotland, EIDCymru for Wales, and NIFAIS for Northern Ireland. This is based on where the holding is registered, not where the animal is travelling to or from.