On a livestock holding, in a breeders’ association or in a cooperative, traceability is not a report: it is a continuous flow of births, identifications, movements, treatments, checks and removals that has to be notified to the official registers on time and without errors. Much of that flow is still handled with notebooks, spreadsheets and rekeying into the applications of the autonomous community (region). Digital livestock traceability means capturing each piece of data once only, at the moment it arises and with the animal in front of you, and having the holding register, the notifications to the register and the data needed for the herd book or for milk recording all come out of that single entry. This guide explains how traceability is organised in Spain, what animal identification requires and how the whole circuit is digitalised, from the ear tag to REGA (Spain’s livestock holdings register).

How animal traceability is organised in Spain

Its backbone is the Integrated Animal Traceability System (Sistema Integral de Trazabilidad Animal, SITRAN), the database of Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, which brings together three registers fed by the autonomous communities:

REGA, the General Register of Livestock Holdings (Registro General de Explotaciones Ganaderas), with the details of each holding (code, keeper, location, species, zootechnical and health classification), governed by Royal Decree 479/2004 (Real Decreto 479/2004).
RIIA, the Register of Individual Animal Identification (Registro de Identificación Individual de Animales), with the animals that are identified individually: cattle, sheep, goats, equines, camelids and cervids.
REMO, the General Register of Livestock Movements (Registro General de Movimientos del Ganado), with individual movements for those species and batch movements for the rest; both registers are governed by Royal Decree 728/2007 (Real Decreto 728/2007).

Above them sits EU animal health legislation: Regulation (EU) 2016/429 and its Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/2035 on identification and registration, which determine which animals are identified, by what means and within what time limits, and which require operators to keep up-to-date records and to notify movements.

Each autonomous community manages its own applications and notification deadlines and integrates them into SITRAN; in Extremadura, for example, the animal health system is SISAEX. A livestock management system has to talk to the relevant regional application, because that is where the notifications are made.

What animal identification requires

Identification is the starting point for all traceability, and each species has its own rules:

Cattle: individual identification with two identifiers – a conventional ear tag and, increasingly, an electronic one – plus a unique individual code, an identification document and registration in RIIA within the set period after birth.
Sheep and goats: individual identification with one electronic identifier (a ruminal bolus or an electronic ear tag) and one conventional identifier, with exceptions for animals intended for slaughter before a certain age.
Pigs: batch identification with the holding code, by ear tag or tattoo, and movements by batch.
Equines: individual identification with a microchip and an equine identification document.

Electronic identifiers follow the ISO 11784 and ISO 11785 standards (low-frequency transponders in FDX-B or HDX format), which means they can be read with handheld readers, stick readers in the race or fixed antennas in passageways, on weigh scales and in milking parlours. That reading is what turns identification into data without anyone typing it in.

Which documents and notifications a holding generates

Once the animals are identified, the operator has to keep and notify:

The holding register, with additions, removals, births, movements and other events, updated within the time limits and available for inspection.
Notification of births, identifications and removals to the regional register and, through it, to RIIA.
Movements, with their movement and health documents and their notification to REMO, at both origin and destination.
Veterinary treatments and the medicines record, with withdrawal periods.
Official health checks and the resulting health status.
Zootechnical data where the holding takes part in a herd book, in performance recording or in a breeding programme: parentage, weighings, conformation scores, milk recording, in accordance with Royal Decree 45/2019 (Real Decreto 45/2019) on zootechnical rules.
Aid declarations under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), in which the inventory is cross-checked against the official registers.

Done by hand, every piece of data is written three times: in the notebook, in the spreadsheet and in the official application. Each copy is an opportunity for error and a deadline that can be missed.

How to go digital, from the ear tag to REGA

With a digital livestock traceability system, the data is captured once and travels on its own:

Capture in the field, with the animal in front of you: a mobile application that reads the ear tag or electronic bolus with a connected reader, identifies the animal and records the event (birth, identification, treatment, weighing, movement, removal) with date, time, user and location. It must work without coverage, because there is none in the race, in the shed or out at pasture, and synchronise afterwards.
Validation on the spot: the system checks that the ear tag exists, that the animal is on the holding, that the movement is consistent with the health status and that the notification deadline has not passed, and raises a warning before the error reaches the register.
An electronic holding register generated from the events, always up to date and exportable for inspection.
Notifications to the regional register prepared or sent from the system, with an acknowledgement and a record of what was notified, instead of being rekeyed into the official application.
Integration with weigh scales, fixed readers and milking parlours, so that weighings and recordings are logged automatically.
Zootechnical data: parentage, weighings and scores feed the association’s herd book and performance recording without being entered again.
Forward traceability: an animal leaving for the abattoir or for another holding takes its full history with it, and the product batch that reaches the processor can be linked to the animals it came from, as we explain in the guide to ERP software for the meat industry and abattoirs.
Reports and alerts: up-to-date inventory, notification deadlines about to expire, treatments with a withdrawal period still running, unidentified animals.

The case of breeders’ associations

Associations that manage an official herd book have the most demanding traceability of all: every registered animal must have verified parentage, performance records and scores, and all of that has to tally with the official inventory of each member holding and with the movements notified to REMO. They also report to the regional paying agencies and take part in breeding programmes. A management system for associations brings together the individual inventory of each animal (ear tag, microchip, the holding’s REGA code), the herd book, milk or performance recording with mobile applications that work without coverage, weighings and conformation scores, and REGA notifications adapted to the regulations of each autonomous community. It is the kind of solution that does not exist as a standard product, and one that CEDESA has developed for livestock associations and for the Balearic Islands’ agri-food research institute, as we describe in software for livestock associations and on the agri-food software page.

What to ask of a livestock traceability system

Reading of ISO 11784 and ISO 11785 electronic identifiers with handheld and fixed readers.
A mobile application that works without coverage, with validation on the spot.
An exportable electronic holding register and built-in notifications to the regional register, with acknowledgement.
A data model that covers species, holdings, animals, batches, movements, treatments and zootechnical data.
Integration with weigh scales, with milking parlours and with the processor’s ERP when the animal leaves the holding.
Security and data protection: the keepers of holdings are individuals and holdings have a location; if the system is used by a public authority or by an association that receives public funds, the National Security Framework (Esquema Nacional de Seguridad, ENS) applies.
Ownership of the system and of the data by the association or the cooperative.

Frequently asked questions about digital livestock traceability

What is SITRAN?

The Integrated Animal Traceability System of Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, which brings together REGA (the register of holdings), RIIA (the register of individual animal identification) and REMO (the register of movements), all fed by the autonomous communities. It is the official database against which any livestock traceability in Spain is checked.

Which animals must be identified electronically?

Sheep and goats are identified individually with one electronic identifier and one conventional one, with exceptions for animals intended for early slaughter; cattle, with two identifiers, increasingly one of them electronic; equines, with a microchip. Pigs are identified by batch with the holding code. Electronic identifiers follow the ISO 11784 and ISO 11785 standards.

What record-keeping obligations does a livestock holding have?

To keep the holding register up to date, to notify births, identifications, movements and removals to the register of its autonomous community on time, to record veterinary treatments with their withdrawal periods and to retain the movement and health documents, as well as zootechnical data if it takes part in a herd book or in performance recording.

Can a digital system communicate directly with REGA?

Notifications are made through the applications and services of each autonomous community, which feed SITRAN. A management system can prepare those notifications and, where the autonomous community allows it, send them from the events recorded in the field, with an acknowledgement and a record, avoiding rekeying in the official application.

What is the difference between livestock traceability and food traceability?

Livestock traceability follows the live animal from birth until it leaves the holding; food traceability follows the product from the abattoir or the processing plant to the consumer. A complete system links the two: the product batch is tied to the animals it came from and to their history.

Conclusion

Digital livestock traceability means reading the ear tag or the bolus with the animal in front of you, recording the event once only, without coverage, and letting the holding register, the notifications to the regional register and to SITRAN, and the data for the herd book or for performance recording all come from there. That is what avoids rekeying, missed deadlines and discrepancies with the official inventory. If your association, cooperative or holding wants to take that step, tell us about your project via our contact page.