SIMPLER rules on livestock movements are to be introduced in England from July.

The existing regime, means many farmers must report livestock movements to any other land they own or rent beyond a five-mile radius of their home farm.

The reporting automatically triggers a six-day lockdown – or "standstill" – on the farm, during which no animals can be moved.

There is also a raft of different rules for sheep, cattle and pigs under a complicated web of schemes, including the Cattle Tracing System (CTS) Links and Sole Occupancy Authorities (SOAs).

But under the new rules farmers will be able to apply to register all the land they use on a permanent or temporary basis within a 10 mile radius under a single County Parish Holding number and will no longer be required to report moves between those parcels of land.

The complex movement rules on (CTS) links, SOAs and batch recording for certain batch recording exemptions for sheep movements will also all be removed.

However, reporting and standstill requirements for livestock movements to other farms or businesses will continue to apply.

The new rules will be phased in over 12 months and were announced on Tuesday by farming minister George Eustice. They were immediately welcomed by the NFU.

Richard Findlay, North East NFU regional livestock board chairman, said: "This is a massive result for hard-pressed livestock farmers that will make the job much more straightforward without any loss of traceability and disease control measures.

"Last year the NFU raised real concerns with Defra about the lack of urgency in implementing proposals to cut red tape, saying farmers and growers needed to focus on producing British food and not being professional form-fillers.

"This announcement is certainly a significant milestone that will help make movement paperwork much more streamlined, reducing the ever-present burden of movement recording and making farm management much more straightforward on a day-to-day basis."

The NFU is now awaiting the absolute detail of the announcement and is seeking assurances that producers who need CTS links and SOAs to manage their businesses will not be adversely affected.

Defra said livestock farmers will receive guidance about the rule changes from next month. An overview of the changes has been published on the Defra website.