Cattle
From initial registering your herd through to the final product packaging and labelling.
Updated 17 June 2024
Transport and slaughter
Home slaughter
It is legal to slaughter your own cattle on the farm as long as the meat is only to be consumed by you and your immediate household. However, there are a number of legal requirements to follow.
- Specified risk material (SRM) must be removed, stained and disposed of as Category 1 (high risk) waste.
- If the animal is over 48 months at age of slaughter it must be tested for BSE
- The animal must be slaughtered by the farmer, not by someone brought in to do it; and must be done on the farm
- The Welfare at the Time of Killing (WATOK) regulations apply.
Further information on humane slaughter on the farm is available here.
Taking cattle to the abattoir
Any cattle going to the abattoir have to be accompanied with their passports. You should note the movement in your own register. However, the abattoir should notify ScotEID of your ‘off’ movement and their ‘on’ movement.
You are responsible for ensuring that your cattle are clean when they go to the abattoir. In practice this means you may have to clip them if they have been outside in muddy conditions or if their indoor bedding has become wet or dirty. Guidance on how to keep cattle clean and how clean is clean enough can be found here
If you are an organic producer and you want to market your animals as organic then you must use an abattoir which has organic certification. You can check with your certifier which abattoirs meet this requirement.
If your cattle are more than 30 months old when they go to the abattoir, the abattoir will remove the spinal cord and other bones as a precaution for BSE. There is an additional charge for this.
Transport
If you have to transport your animals further than 65km to the abattoir or to another farm then you will need a Type 1 (or Type 2) transporter authorisation. You need to apply for this through APHA.Loading animals into a vehicle for transport can be stressful. Striking animals, dragging them or poking them with a sharp object is prohibited. More details on best practice at loading here.