This guidance explains that you now have another option. If you follow the conditions set out below, you can keep an online herd register by recording your herd information in APHIS. This means you do not have to maintain a herd register on your farm.
For many decades you have been required to keep a herd register on your farm listing each of your cattle and their origin and destination. This has been kept in the form of a paper herd book or in an electronic form (in DAERA-accepted software or a computer spreadsheet).
Online herd register guidance for cattle