Cattle Passport Deadline Calculator
Enter a calf's date of birth below. This works out the exact day its passport application needs to have reached BCMS, using the wording on GOV.UK: by the day the calf is 27 days old.
Enter a date of birth above to see the deadline.
A cattle passport application must be received by BCMS by the day the calf is 27 days old. So a calf born on the 1st is 27 days old on the 28th. Bison get 7 days instead of 27. Aim to send it well before the last day.
How is the 27-day deadline worked out?
GOV.UK says you must register the birth by the day the calf is 27 days old (7 days for bison). So the birth date is day zero, and this calculator adds 27 days to the date you enter for cattle, or 7 days for bison. I would still treat that date as the absolute latest and aim to send the application earlier.
The date shown is when the application needs to have arrived and been accepted by BCMS, not the day you need to post it or click submit. If you're applying online through CTS Online, that distinction barely matters, submission and receipt happen at the same moment. If you're posting a form, treat the calculator's date as the absolute latest, not the day to put something in the postbox.
Set your own reminder two or three days before the date this tool shows, not on the day itself. That gives you a buffer for a form that needs a correction, a signal blackspot, or simply a day that got away from you.
What happens if you're already past the deadline?
If the date this calculator shows has already passed, BCMS will not issue a normal passport for that animal. Instead it gets a CPP35 notice of registration, which carries permanent restrictions: no entry to the food chain, ever, and no movement alive off the holding except under a specific licence to a BSE sampling site, a knacker's yard or hunt kennels. Full detail on what that actually means, and the narrow appeal route, is covered in the cattle without a passport guide.
Where can you read the full rule?
This tool only does the date arithmetic. For everything else, who has to apply, how, what counts as an exceptional circumstance for a late application, and how this interacts with the move from BCMS to LIS, see the 27-day passport rule guide.
This deadline, tracked automatically
FarmHQ starts this same clock the moment a calving is logged, whether typed in or said out loud from the pen, and drafts the passport application against the real birth date so you never have to run this calculation by hand again.
See how FarmHQ worksWhat does the deadline look like on real dates?
GOV.UK says you must register the birth by the day the calf is 27 days old, so the date of birth is day zero and the calculator adds 27 days to it. Here are four worked examples you can check against the tool.
- A calf born on 1 October 2026 is 27 days old on Wednesday 28 October 2026.
- A calf born on 31 January 2027 is 27 days old on Saturday 27 February 2027.
- A calf born on 1 February 2027 is 27 days old on Sunday 28 February 2027.
- A bison calf born on 10 October 2026 gets 7 days, so the date is Saturday 17 October 2026.
Notice that the date can land on a weekend. A Saturday or Sunday is a poor day to be relying on the post or on someone being at a desk, so treat the last working day before the date as your real deadline.
What does the calculator not know about my calf?
It knows only the date you type in. It does not know whether the calf was born on the holding you think it was, whether the dam's details are on your register, or whether you have already sent the application.
The date it gives is a ceiling, not a target. My advice is to work out the date, then subtract a week and put that one in the diary. A week of slack costs you nothing, and a day of slack is worth nothing once the window has closed. Our guide to the 27-day rule walks through what counts as an application that has arrived, and the holding register guide covers the birth record you need to keep alongside it.
What mistakes do people make with the 27 days?
The common ones are counting from the day the calf was first seen in a group rather than the day it was born, counting from the day it was tagged, and assuming a posted form counts from the day it was posted. The rule runs from birth, and the application has to reach the system, not just leave the farm. The passport rules themselves sit in the Cattle Identification Regulations 2007.
The other trap is a batch of calves in a busy spring. One calf born on a Monday and another born on the Friday have different dates, and a single reminder for the week will be wrong for one of them. Record each calf's own birth date and let each date stand on its own. If you are already past the date, read what happens to a cattle passport that is late before you do anything else, because the options are limited.
Is the rule the same across the UK?
The 27-day figure is the same idea in each nation, but the system you report to is not. In England the birth goes to BCMS, and Welsh cattle still report to BCMS until the move to EIDCymru, which the Welsh Government plans from November 2026. In Northern Ireland, DAERA says births and tagging must be notified within 27 days of birth or before movement, whichever is the earlier, so a calf you intend to sell early may have a shorter window than 27 days.
Our guide to the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish cattle systems sets out who runs each one, and the livestock deadlines table lists every other date that sits beside this one.
What do farmers actually ask?
How does this calculator work out the deadline?
It takes the birth date you enter and adds 27 days, the date the calf is 27 days old, which is the deadline GOV.UK gives for registering the birth to get a passport. For bison it adds 7 days instead.
Is the deadline the day I need to send the application, or the day it needs to arrive?
The day it needs to arrive and be received by BCMS. Posting or submitting on the deadline itself is cutting it close, especially by post, so treat the date shown as the latest safe day to have it already in.
What happens if the deadline has already passed?
BCMS will not issue a normal passport. The calf gets a CPP35 notice of registration instead, with permanent restrictions on selling it or moving it off the holding alive except to a BSE sampling site, a knacker's yard or hunt kennels.
Does the 27 days include the day the calf was born?
No. GOV.UK says to register the birth by the day the calf is 27 days old, so the birth date is day zero. A calf born on the 1st is 27 days old on the 28th. The calculator follows that, and I would still send the application well before the last day.
Is there a shorter deadline in Northern Ireland?
It can be. DAERA says births and tagging must be notified within 27 days of birth or before movement, whichever is the earlier. If you plan to move a calf in its first weeks, notify the birth before it leaves. Check DAERA for the current process on your holding.