What is the TVD?
The livestock traffic database (TVD — Tierverkehrsdatenbank) is Switzerland's central database in which all farm animals and their movements are recorded. It is operated via the agate.ch portal and serves the traceability of animals — for example in the event of disease outbreaks.
As a sheep, goat, or cattle keeper you are legally required to report certain events to the TVD within defined deadlines. This applies to every farm, whether hobby farming or professional breeding. Important: deadlines are tied to the event and apply equally to sheep, goats, and cattle — births within 30 days, arrivals and departures within 3 days. For cattle, tagging the calf (two ear tags within 20 days) and the accompanying document are also required.
Which notifications are mandatory?
Swiss animal disease legislation requires the following notifications:
- Birth notification — When a lamb, kid, or calf is born on your farm.
- Arrival notification — When an animal comes to your farm (purchase, return from alpine summering).
- Departure notification — When an animal leaves your farm (sale, alpine summering, relocation).
- Death notification — When an animal dies on your farm.
- Slaughter notification — When an animal is slaughtered.
These notifications must be submitted on time. Missed or late notifications can result in findings during inspections.
How does Herdy help?
Herdy replaces the cumbersome route through the agate.ch portal. Instead of logging in there, navigating through nested menus, and filling in forms, you handle everything directly in Herdy:
Submit notifications directly
Create TVD notifications in just a few steps. Herdy already knows your animals and fills in many fields automatically. You select the animal, the date, and the reason — Herdy does the rest. For birth notifications you can also specify litter size. Frequently used partner farms can be saved as favourites and selected directly from the list next time.
Compliance dashboard
On the TVD overview page you can see at a glance where action is needed:
- Red highlight — Overdue notifications that must be submitted urgently.
- Orange highlight — Notifications whose deadline is approaching soon.
- Green highlight — Everything in order, no open notifications.
This keeps you on top of deadlines and ensures you never miss one.
Import your herd
Load your current animal inventory directly from the TVD into Herdy. You do not need to enter your animals one by one. Your entire herd is available digitally in just a few clicks.
Manage ear tags
Herdy also synchronises your ear tag inventory with the TVD. You can see at a glance which tags are available, assigned, or used up.
Alpine summering as a batch action
The alpine ascent and descent often affects many animals at once. With the summering function you create all the required notifications in one go — instead of doing it animal by animal.
Manage partner farms
Farms with which you regularly exchange animals can be saved in Herdy. Saved partner farms are available in all notification forms for quick selection — including favourites and categories (farm, slaughterhouse, alp). You can find the management under Master Data > Partner Farms.
Requirements
To use the TVD integration you need:
- A Herdy account with a farm set up.
- An agate.ch account, which you connect to Herdy via TVD > Settings (OAuth login).
- A linked farm — after the Agate connection you select your TVD farm and link it to Herdy.
Once the connection is established and the farm is linked, you can use all TVD features from within Herdy.
Tip: If you do not yet have agate.ch credentials, you can apply for them through your canton or directly via identitas.ch.