EUDR geolocation for cattle: establishments, not plots

Cattle are the one commodity where geolocation does not point at the land the product grew on. It points at where the animals lived: "the geolocation shall refer to all the establishments where the cattle were kept" (Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, Art. 9(1)(d)). An establishment is any premises or, for open-air farming, any place where livestock are kept (Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, Art. 2(29)).

What is different in the file

• All the establishments, not one. An animal born on one farm, raised on another and finished in a feedlot has three locations. Each is a feature in the file.
• No polygon requirement. The four-hectare polygon rule applies to "relevant commodities other than cattle" (Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, Art. 2(28)), and the Information System only raises its large-point error "if the commodity is not cattle" (Information System validation rules, Geolocation area for point). A ranch of thousands of hectares can be one point.
• Area still matters for points. A point without Area is still treated as four hectares (Information System validation rules, Geolocation area for point), which says nothing true about a ranch. Give the real area.

In the checker

The file does not say which commodity it is for. Set Commodity to Cattle, and a point over four hectares becomes a note instead of an error. Leave it unset and the checker applies the general rule, and says why.

Which products

Live cattle, beef and offal, and prepared beef are in Annex I (Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, Annex I). Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/2102 removes cattle hides, skins and leather from the list, adds frozen cattle tongues from 30 December 2027, and clarifies that "cattle" means the genus Bos, not buffalo or bison (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/2102).