Livestock Farming

Guidance and information on how to move livestock in to Northern Ireland

Primary Production Hygiene introduces a ‘farm to fork’ approach to ensure food safety throughout the food chain starting with primary production. All farmers that feed animals and/or produce crops for animal feed must also ensure feed safety for food producing animals.

Organic production requires a planned approach. Each individual holding develops its own integrated system based on its own particular circumstances such as soil characteristics, pasture and crop needs, livestock and housing. The information in this section of the DARD website should answer your Organic Farming questions.

If you farm or intend to farm poultry, there are rules and regulations that you must be aware of. You must follow specific legislation in order to maintain quality and to ensure that animal and consumer health, and the environment, is protected. The following information will provide you with the advice and guidance you require.

DAERA offers cattle farmers the option of maintaining their herd register on NIFAIS instead of using an on-farm electronic or paper herd book. The user must comply with certain conditions and these have been set out in detail below.

The information below is the Terms & Conditions that have been set out for the Beef Carbon Reduction Scheme

BRUCELLOSIS COMPENSATION RATES FOR JANUARY 2026

DAERA Online Services, such as Nifais, APHIS, Single Application and Map Service have been designed to help farmers reduce many of the paper based transactions required by DAERA and are free, easy to use, available 24/7, safe and secure. The Online Services also help farmers comply with legislation, reduce potential errors and give farmers access to detailed information about their business and animals.