Since the ministerial announcement on 2^nd June confirming that English cattle movement reporting will transition from the current Cattle Tracing Service (CTS) to the Livestock Information Service (LIS) in Summer 2026, it has been full steam ahead for the team at Livestock Information Ltd to ensure the new cattle service is ready and exceeds industry expectations.

As one of the first pieces of work to go live, we are delighted to have released the API endpoints for third party software providers to enable them to begin their development into LIS (cattle). This is a significant development towards the launch of the new service, and we look forward to sharing further updates as and when they occur. 

What does this mean?

It may come as no surprise that most of cattle movements in England are currently reported into CTS using third party software, for example, farm software, market software and abattoir software.

Ahead of the transition from CTS to LIS next summer, software providers will need to make changes to their API integrations, which is how their software will feed data into the new Livestock Information Service for cattle in the future. This allows their customers (keepers, markets and abattoirs) to continue using their software in the way they do today to report movements and meet statutory obligations, without having to log-in separately to the LIS service each time they want to report a movement.

For software providers who decide not to update their API integrations to LIS, their customers will be able to enter their data into LIS directly to meet their statutory obligations. We recommend that software users are in contact with their software provider closer to the time to understand their intentions. The updates require considerable development and testing time for software providers, so at LI we are committed to providing as much notice and support as possible for them to schedule in the work. We do this using the LIS Developer Hub, which is explained below.

The LIS Developer Hub

The LIS Developer Hub provides information for software providers. Livestock Information have developed the LIS API to allow livestock keepers to submit, view, modify and confirm livestock movements electronically using their farm software. The connection is secure and access to endpoints is restricted to registered users.

We currently support two Developer Hubs:

1. LI Developer Hub (Sheep) 
2. ALPHA Developer Hub (Cattle) 

If you are a software and would like to connect to either the LIS (sheep) or LIS (cattle) through our APIs, then please visit the Developer Hub page on the LI website or get in touch via email info@livestockinformation.org.uk.  

Development & Testing

To support third-party software providers, all LIS API endpoints for the new cattle service are being made available in two scheduled release windows; one was on the 30^th of June, and the second will be in early August. This should provide sufficient lead time ahead of cattle go-live in the summer 2026, for all third parties to understand development and testing requirements and communicate changes to their customers. At this stage, the APIs are all in what is referred to as a ‘Sandbox environment’, which is essentially a test environment. Please note that APIs may change and will need to be validated before go-live.

In Spring 2026, there will be the opportunity for selected software providers to take part in the Private Beta phase of the roll out, which will enable them to test their integrations further.

What is a Private Beta?

To avoid unforeseen complications during the transition, the LIS cattle service is to be launched in phases. The first stage is a Private Beta, which launches in December 2025 for a selected few cattle keepers who don’t use third party software. There will then be a rolling beta which will look to bring in software providers in early 2026.

A Private Beta is a phase of testing in software development, where a product is made available for external use by customers referred to as “beta testers”. This stage allows the customers to use the software in real life scenarios to gather feedback before the final release. During this phase, the LIS software developers will be able to identify and fix any bugs or issues which may come to light. Throughout the whole of the beta testing, a data feed will be in place to ensure that CTS remains the main source of data for cattle births, movements and deaths.

We are excited for you to join us on this journey to building a more resilient livestock industry through improved animal traceability. Follow us on social media, via the links in the footer, to stay up to date.