Sheep

Records & inspections

Before keeping sheep, you should familiarise yourself with ongoing administrative and reporting duties. You can then keep legally required records and are prepared for inspections from the Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate (RPID). 

Keeping records

Good record-keeping is essential to successful sheep-rearing. You are legally required to maintain a holding register and medicine records, and you should also keep records of annual flock performance, insurances, inspections, and financial accounts as a business. 

Useful resources:

• Webinar: Sheep Record Keeping, Farm Advisory Service
• Sheep Record Keeping Factsheet, Farm Advisory Service

Holding register

You must start and maintain a holding register, which includes information such as your CPH number, a log of sheep movements, and details of your flock identification. 

You can keep a holding register:

• Electronically on ScotEID, which is the electronic hub for tracing livestock in Scotland.
• On paper. Check what needs to be included in the holding register, and download a template holding register from the Scottish Government website. 

You must update the holding register within 48 hours of moving or tagging sheep, or when one of your sheep dies. 

Moving sheep

Any time you move sheep from or to your farm, you must complete a movement document and report the move to the Scottish Animal Movement Unit (SAMU). 

Request movement documents from your local RPID office. Paper copies must accompany the sheep when they are being moved and the sheep need be tagged (see ‘Tagging sheep’). You must send the document to SAMU within three days of the sheep’s arrival to its next location – check contact details for SAMU.

Some markets and abattoirs are registered as Critical Control Points and will automatically send your sheep’s individual numbers to ScotEID. Read more about Critical Control Points.

You must keep a register of all sheep movements for a minimum of three years. See also ‘Sheep movement restrictions’.

Medicine records

If you farm sheep for food, you must keep records of any medicine given to the animals for five years. Otherwise, keep these records for three years. 

There are legal requirements for what information must be kept in medicine records, and you need to keep purchase receipts. 

Check the legal recording requirements for:

• Medicine bought, administered, or disposed by you
• Medicine administered by a vet
• Prescribed medicine products

The Farm Advisory Service has a video guide on key medicine record requirements. 

Read more about medicine records on the Veterinary Medicines Directorate website.

Inspections

The Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate (RPID) may arrange to inspect your farm to ensure you are complying with legal requirements to have appropriate registrations, keep records and identify your sheep. You must provide them with your up-to-date records and help with sampling your flock.  

Find out more about RPID inspections:

• ‘Sheep and goat inspections’, Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate
• Sheep and goat inspection form, Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate

You may also be inspected by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS).