Farm Diary October 8 2008

The silage clamp was completed as Glebdales the contractors filled it with maize silage last Friday, and they finished just before the rain arrived on Saturday afternoon.

The bulk of the maize is now in, and the remaining crop will not be ready for another fortnight or so. By the time you read this the work on cow cubicles for this coming winter will be done, with only some minor maintenance to the feed troughs to do. We still need to finish the work on the feed bunkers, and we still have plenty of other work to do, but it will be more relaxed from now on.

We will transport 70 of the bulling heifers from Tillington to their winter quarters this week, and it won't be long before the weaned calves over there will be allowed to run out in the yard. We have had a good run of Holstein heifer calves, and I also have a buyer for the Holstein bull calves which is excellent.

The cold dry weather has certainly been good for the calves, and they are doing well. Now that we are back in warmer wetter weather yet again, I expect there to be more chesty coughs in the calf sheds which there has been plenty of this wet summer and autumn.

After the unfortunate incident where a woman contracted Bovine TB, Defra has revealed the risk to human health from infection. Across the country TB in 'non-bovine species' are as follows; 22 farmed deer, 42 park deer, and 123 wild deer; 39 cats, 30 pigs, 17 llama, 6 sheep, 2 dogs, 2 farmed wild boar, 1 goat and 1 fox have been found infected with the disease.

The incidence of bovine TB spreading to other species is on the increase according to Defra, who released the figures under Freedom of Information Act, requested by the NFU. The NFU is becoming increasingly worried about the risk to people working with livestock, as the disease is allowed to take its course with no action from government, and other powerless due to the badger protection act.

In a report submitted for publication in a scientific journal, scientists reveal that the former veterinary nurse, who contracted TB last year, was likely to have caught the disease from badgers straying into her garden. They found that the strain was the same as that circulating in cattle and badgers in Cornwall, where the lady lived. Andy Biggs, spokesman for the British Cattle Veterinary Association claimed that as the report concluded that the lady was ill for two months before her dog, and that it was unlikely she caught the disease from cattle, that this provided more evidence and put more pressure on government to act.

Meanwhile, as mentioned in this column repeatedly, the risk of farmers and other taking matters into their own hands; is now happening. Farmers and others who are now worried about transmission from badgers and pets to humans, are risking prison sentences as they slaughter hundreds of badgers illegally.

The fear of the disease transmitting to children on playgrounds where badgers are present at night, and with livelihoods at risk, it is no wonder that country people are now reacting to government inaction. There comes a point where enough is enough, and as I have said repeatedly in this column, no one gives a damn about my healthy badgers and healthy cows both of whom are at increasing risk of infection as the disease travels eastwards.

There are too many badgers in this area now too, and they should be managed. Overpopulation of any species is not a good thing, and deer, badger, fox, rabbit, rat, all need to be kept under control. For a top predator to be allowed protection is ridiculous, it leads to overpopulation, disease, hunger, and misery.

This is not welfare or compassion; it is crass stupidity, and spineless politicians who never look further than the next vote, terrified by the people haters; will never tackle such problems until it's too late.

Well its getting too late now and they will need to build more prisons to put the farmers and good citizens of this country who are out there defending themselves, their children and their businesses from a disease that is now out of control. Ordinary people see clearly that such a situation cannot continue, and they also have the good sense to realise that had this been tackled by this government ten years ago, the need for culling badges and disease control would have been far easier.