If you keep cattle, sheep, or goats and are now adding pigs, you'll quickly notice that traceability follows different rules. In Switzerland, pigs are not registered individually in the animal movement database (TVD) – there is no per-animal ear-tag identity as there is for cattle. This article explains what that means for your reporting duties and how to keep your herd register and arrival notifications under control with Herdy.
Pigs work differently in the TVD
For cattle, sheep, and goats, every animal is reported individually via its ear-tag number – birth, arrival, departure, and death are all animal-specific. Pigs are different: what matters is not the individual animal but the TVD (holding) number of your herd. The single fattening pig or breeding sow has no identity held in the TVD.
That simplifies the notification – but it shifts the responsibility onto keeping your own herd records clean.
Movements as group arrival notifications
Pig movements are reported to the TVD by group and head count, not per animal. An arrival notification (Zugangsmeldung) essentially contains three pieces of information:
- Number of animals arriving
- TVD number of the source holding
- Date of the movement
The notification must be made within the legal deadline. You can find the deadlines currently in force on tierverkehr.ch or via the FSVO – check them before relying on a fixed figure.
You usually do not report the departure to slaughter yourself: the slaughterhouse handles that. So your focus is mainly on the arrivals into your herd.
The herd register is mandatory
The legally required instrument at farm level is the herd register (Bestandesliste / animal movement record). It documents seamlessly which animals arrived and left, and when, and it is the basis of every inspection. Unlike the TVD notification, the herd register stays on the farm – but it must be complete and up to date at all times.
This is exactly where a digital solution adds value: an app can maintain the herd register automatically from your entries, instead of you keeping a separate paper booklet in parallel.
How Herdy helps with pigs
Herdy supports pigs as a fourth species – on two levels that work together:
Digital herd register and individual management
Even though the TVD knows no individual pigs, recording them individually pays off for your own farm management. In Herdy you capture, per animal or group:
- Breed – Swiss Large White (Edelschwein), Swiss Landrace, Duroc, Piétrain, PRIMERA, PREMO, Mangalitsa (Wollschwein), or crossbreed
- Breeding – matings, farrowings, litters
- Weights – development from piglet to end of fattening
- Treatments – TAMV-compliant treatment journal
- Health – observations and care journal
From this, Herdy keeps your herd register automatically and inspection-ready.
Arrival reporting straight from the app
You create the group-based TVD arrival notification directly in Herdy: enter the number of animals, the source holding, and the date – done. The head-count principle for pigs is built in, so you don't have to wrestle through animal-by-animal forms.
Conclusion
Pigs are a special case in the TVD: no individual registration, but group notifications and an all the more important herd register. Once you understand that, you report correctly and stay relaxed at inspection time. Herdy spares you the double work – a digital herd register for your management, with the arrival notification handled in one go.