Woodside Farm, a family business based in the heart of Sherwood Forest, is run by third-generation farmer, Richard Baugh.

Farming 300 acres, Richard has 700 breeding ewes and finishes lambs for a contract with a leading supermarket, as well as rearing his own replacements. In addition to his flock, Richard also has 120 sows and finishes all progeny for local butchers and wholesalers, alongside a successful hog roast business. Woodside Farm uses 120 acres of the farm for arable farming, with the aim of being as self-sufficient as possible and growing the necessary grain and straw for the sheep and pigs.

Reflecting on when he began to use the Livestock Information Service, Richard explains that he has always reported his animal movements digitally.

“It has been compulsory to record pig movements online for over 10 years, so we were already accustomed to using a digital service when we began recording sheep movements,” explains Richard.

“We initially used ARAMS but found it awkward to navigate and it was not particularly user friendly, however the Livestock Information Service is much better. Signing up to LIS in 2022 was a simple process and once we got to grips with the functionality of the service, navigation around the digital platform was easy.”

Richard rents additional land on a short-term basis for his flock, so he is frequently moving sheep and uses LIS regularly.

“We are always moving sheep so we use LIS a lot, I would say weekly. I haven’t posted paper movement forms in years, and to be honest, I am not sure why other farmers still do. Especially when using LIS to record sheep movements is so easy and our records are securely stored online.”

Looking to the future, Richard comments on the changes he would like to see when using LIS to digitally report his sheep movements.

“It would be great if the form generated by LIS, that we print to give the haulier, could be reduced to one page, as well as having the movement date pre-populated. In addition to sheep movement reporting, I am also very interested in any future changes to the process of recording pig movements,” Richard concludes.