In this guide
2. Land
There are steps that you have to follow before you buy or take responsibility for cattle on your holding.
What is a holding
Farms, livestock markets, slaughterhouses, assembly and collection centres are examples of holdings. They are identified by the County/Parish/Holding (CPH) numbering system.
How to get a County Parish Holding (CPH) number?
To get a CPH number you will first need to:
- get a Customer Reference Number (CRN) from Rural Payments Wales (RPW) by contacting the Customer Contact Centre
- apply for your CPH using the Manage My CPH system and you will be notified of your new CPH number via your RPW online account.
For existing customers, you should use the Manage My CPH service on RPW online.
When you take on or give up land where you keep cattle, you must update the land details on Manage My CPH.
Getting a herd mark
Contact the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) to allocate you a herd mark for your holding and register you as a keeper of livestock on:
- telephone 0300 303 8268 or
- email apha.cymruwales@apha.gov.uk
The herd mark is part of the animal’s unique identification number and is printed on each cattle ear tag. You need a herd mark before you can:
- buy new tags, ready to use when a calf is born on your holding
- order a replacement for a lost or damaged tag, (although the replacement tag will bear the same unique number as the lost or damaged one)
Buying your ear tags
To order your ear tags you will need your CPH number and herd mark. The ID numbers printed on them are allocated from the GB Livestock Unique Identification Service (LUIS) to suppliers of approved identifiers/ear tags. You can find a list of suppliers and their approved products on the Gov.UK website.