THOUSANDS of calves could be facing slaughter because of problems with the postal service, a Hampshire farmer has claimed.

Alan Girling is among animal-keepers country-wide who may be forced to kill livestock because their registration documents arrived late.

Mr Girling blames Royal Mail for the fact that his six-month-old pedigree Charolais has been refused an animal passport.

Bureaucrats refused to issue the document because the application arrived a day late - even though Mr Girling sent it by first class post six days before the deadline.

The calf is one of 23,500 to be refused a passport because their applications arrived late. Although there is no legal requirement to cull the cows, farmers have said it may not be profitable to keep them alive.

A spokesman for registering organisation The British Cattle Movement Service has indicated the postal service could be to blame for many of the late applications.

Mr Girling sent the BCMS a three-page Daily Echo report on the April postal service collapse in a bid to save his calf.

But his appeal has been quashed because he cannot provide proof of postage.

He said: "I can't understand why a three-page Echo feature can't be held as sufficient evidence.

"It just seems crazy. I would suggest the mistake isn't mine. It's the fault of the postal service. When you're told you can rely on first class mail you don't give a second thought to it.

"Many farmers have told me I should have just lied. If a farmer doesn't register his calf and knows the documents aren't going to be there in time, who's to say it wasn't born a week later? No one's going to know."

A spokesman for Royal Mail said: "We would apologise to the customer for the inconvenience the delay has caused.

"We advise customers when sending critical documents where they need to guarantee delivery to use our special delivery service ,which guarantees a next day delivery."

National Farmers' Union spokesman James Mulleneux said the passport system was necessary so that bovines infected by BSE could be traced back to their original herd.

But he questioned the severity of refusing passports if applications were just a day late, suggesting a fining system would be a less wasteful alternative.

He said: "Perfectly healthy animals are being destroyed.

"It's a major concern that we need to resolve. Clearly if there are animals out there without passports it puts farmers in a very difficult position as to what they do with that animal."

A spokesman for the British Cattle Movement Service confirmed problems with the postal service were a valid reason for appeal, but only if farmers could produce proof of postage.