Cow tags help end beef ban

Northern Ireland?s cattle database has helped with the lifting of Europe?s beef ban for that part of the UK, writes Nick Farrell.

Since 1988, more than 1,500,000 cattle in Northern Ireland have been tracked using an electronic ear tag, which is inserted at birth and read and updated by vets every time the cattle go to market.

More than 300 terminals at markets, vet offices and meat plants are connected to a Unisys 2200/440 mainframe database via an X25 network.

A representative for the Northern Ireland Agriculture office said that the Euro-pean Union would not have even bothered to vote on lifting the beef ban had it not been for the cattle database.

However, English farmers and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries (MAFF) decided in favour of a paper-based system.

Initially the National Farmers Union (NFU) wanted to move to an electronic tagging system, but later backed down and supported MAFF?s paper based system. This involves sending information on each cow?s movements to a database controlled by Computer Associates via email or by post.

NFU Livestock advisor Carol Lloyd said: ?We had to accept that there are farmers who are going to be unable to deal with technology.?