Rekenregels schapen en geiten voor de Landbouwtelling : verantwoording van het gebruik van het Identificatie & Registratiesysteem

Summary

Information on cattle farming in the Netherlands is needed for the national statistics on sheep and goat farms and farm structure. To obtain this information the national government asks farmers to submit information on the number of sheep and goats on their farms, divided into the various animal classes, as part of the annual agricultural census. The government also wants to minimise the administrative burden on farmers. Wageningen Environmental Research has studied to what extent it would possible to derive the required information from the existing identification and registration system (I&R) for sheep and goat (a system for identifying and registering livestock for animal and human health purposes). The results show that this is largely possible: for most farms all the animal classes can be automatically derived from the I&R. For some farms it is necessary to make an additional division of animal classes by product category. This new way of working will not only reduce the administrative burden, but it will also lead to better quality data on sheep and goats.