They agreed to draw up a protocol to facilitate such movements and to review the issue again on April 27th. The Expert Group has not yet given any serious consideration to lifting restrictions on the movement of store cattle and calves despite proposals tabled by all the major farming organisations calling for the beginning of such movements under permit. It also emerged this week that livestock sales at marts are unlikely to resume for several months yet. The use of marts as assembly points for the onward movement of cattle under permit to meat factories is expected to start next week, possibly from Tuesday or Wednesday, but actual livestock sales appear to be far down the road yet. The permit system for moving animals to a meat factory will be changed to include a mart assembly booking number as well as a factory booking number, both of which the farmer must obtain before taking the animals to the assembly centres.
Animals can only travel to an assembly centre under permit.
They cannot be returned to the farm of origin from an assembly centre or a factory. Therefore animals which do not comply with the permit requirements may ultimately have to be destroyed, under the terms of the protocol worked out between the Department and the marts. The permit system will only apply to animals that have been on the holding of dispatch for at least 30 days prior to movement and where there have been no inward movements of susceptible animals onto the holding within that period. Marts will be used to assemble stock for one designated meat plant per day and can take both cattle and sheep - provided they are booked into the mart and the meat plant. When sheep are being moved to the assembly centre they must carry markings from the farm as they will be marked again by the mart before being taken to the meat plant.