Communications In Print (CIP) in Basildon has won a contract from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) to print 56m personalised cattle cards as part of a national cattle census.


This follows an initial job of 112,000 booklets for farmers to register their cattle.


CIP will need 45 days and nights of continuous work, starting on 15 September, to print the 56m duplex cards, which make up 7m passports for all animals accepted onto the Cattle Trading System.


Operations director and joint owner Philip Cherry said: No-one really knows the size of the UK herd and we are dependent on farmers filling in the forms and sending them back.


IBM, which was only given a few weeks notice, installed a second Infoprint 4000 and made adjustments to the system.


Story by Jeremy Allen