If you want to keep sheep or goats first of all you need a CPH number, check? I got mine in 2007, updated to online a few years ago! To move sheep you set up an account with Livestock services, or use paperwork and post it I’m telling this as I spent a lot of time going around information web pages, without an actual phone contact number anywhere! To set up the account you need a CPH number. Ok at this point I found my number was not active!! I checked my online information with DEFRA, all ok! I then spent a lot of time phoning DEFRA, eventually telling a very helpful person,” I’m getting sheep next week.” “Someone will phone you today, to let you know what is sorted!” The next day, having had no phone call, I am back in the phone queue, to eventually be told “you are listed as a priority, it will be 7-10 days! “What, that is no good, I have to get a flock number from APHA, I need my CPH active!” Upgraded to urgent priority, by tomorrow! A phone call then to tell me my number is now active. So two days wait and a phone call to APHA, of course they haven’t had the CPH number! They sorted it and phoned me back, with an email sent with flock number and my usual CPH from 2007. It was another few days to have Livestock services updated and this is supposed to make things easier in future! The moral of this story is don’t think because you have a CPH number it is necessarily active, there are changes to the system currently taking place, nobody emails you to check if you still need it! Give yourself time to sort the CPH, if you don’t already have one, contact DEFRA first. You can download a Holding register to record everything in, or use an online version, it is also useful to have an Animal Medicine Application Record book. We had horse safe land, but needed extra security for sheep, so the whole of the perimeter was fitted with sheep wire, all gaps secured and extra around an adjoining pond, happy we were now ready to receive our first flock. The shearling girls Emma and Evie, had been put together, with the just weaned Feather and Fern, so that they would bond for a couple of weeks, before coming to us, which shows what a lovely breeder they were from!