Understand your duties, not guess the paperwork
Most fines don't come from bad intent — they come from not knowing exactly what has to be recorded, and when. Here we explain the logic behind the rules, and we're upfront about where you need to look up the official, binding text.
These articles explain how a duty is built and what information it requires. They deliberately name no deadlines, thresholds or dates, because those change and differ by Bundesland. For the binding, current state, we link the responsible source at the end of every article. This is not legal advice.
| Duty | Who it applies to | Explained |
|---|---|---|
| Determine and record fertiliser demand Go to module | Farms that fertilise | Read the guide |
| Identify cattle and report events Go to module | Cattle-keeping farms | Read the guide |
| Keep the register for pigs, sheep and goats Go to module | Farms keeping pigs, sheep or goats | Read the guide |
| Keep a livestock register and report antibiotic quantities Go to module | Livestock keepers who use veterinary medicines | Read the guide |
| Plant protection: application, certified competence, sprayer inspection Go to module | Farms that apply plant protection products | Read the guide |
| Record working time Go to module | Farms with employees | Read the guide |
| Assess and document workplace hazards Go to module | Farms with employees | Read the guide |
| Keep records tamper-proof (GoBD) Go to module | All farms required to keep accounts | Read the guide |
| Store, transport and document manure Go to module | Farms that produce or receive manure | Read the guide |
| Document biosecurity in pig farming Go to module | Pig-keeping farms | Read the guide |
| Document conditionality and landscape features Go to module | Farms receiving area-based payments | Read the guide |
Animal Health
Documenting Biosecurity in Pig Farming
Biosecurity is decided at the barn door, not in a folder. What the risk assessment asks, why mortality figures are an early warning signal and which records have to exist before a suspected case.
Animal Identification
HI-Tier for cattle – which events get reported, and who's liable
Birth, arrival, departure, death: which events belong in the cattle database, why every notification involves two farms, and how discrepancies with the census report arise.
Pigs, Sheep and Goats – Keeping the Register and Reporting the Census Date
For these species the farm doesn't report individual animals – it keeps a register and reports a headcount on the census date. What the register has to contain, why it has to be kept even without HI-Tier access, and where discrepancies come from.
Bookkeeping
Keeping records tamper-proof (GoBD)
Bookkeeping has to be traceable, complete and tamper-proof. What that means for digital records, why business correspondence belongs with it, and what an inspection actually wants to see.
CAP Funding
Documenting conditionality and landscape features
Anyone applying for area-based payments takes on a bundle of requirements – and has to be able to prove the condition of their land. What a record has to contain, why hedgerows and field margins count too, and why the field block is the shared reference.
Fertiliser Law
Documenting fertiliser requirement – what's required, and in what order
The Fertilization Ordinance requires a calculation before you fertilise, and a record afterwards. What belongs in each document, why the order matters, and where inspections most often find gaps.
Storing, moving and documenting organic manure
Anyone storing, sending or receiving slurry, manure or digestate keeps three separate records. What belongs in each, why the storage tank is a duty of its own, and where inspections most often find gaps.
Occupational Safety
Risk assessment – the duty almost nobody can produce on request
Why the assessment is oriented around the task rather than the farm, when it has to be updated, and why the documentation is part of the duty rather than merely its proof.
Plant Protection
Plant protection – three duties that keep getting mixed up
Application records, the certificate of competence and equipment inspection each attach to a different thing and are checked separately. What each one requires, and why none of them makes up for the others.
Veterinary Medicines
The Bestandsbuch and antibiotics reporting – who writes down what
Why the Bestandsbuch is its own record alongside the vet's dispensing receipt, what the usage-type declaration is for, and where the therapy frequency number comes from.
Working Time
Working time for seasonal workers – two duties, one entry
Why the German Working Time Act and the separate recording duty require different things, what an entry has to show per person and per day, and why a weekly total is not a record.
Documentation that holds up under scrutiny
FarmManager captures the evidence right where the work happens — so the paperwork is already done by the time someone asks to see it.