Foot n mouth, 20 years ago today.

Sid · Feb 21, 2021

J 1177 said:
I got about half way through the 2nd one and gave up. Brought a tear. Im sat having a cup of coffe in the kitchen trying to pull myself together. And we diddnt even get it.

Hence why I won't watch them or read that book.

Its call PTSD, and we received zero compensation for the pain that still affects farmers and their families today.

glasshouse said:
I couldnt even watch it

Me neither

Nithsdale Farmer said:
My heart bloody bleeds. You're still here, still farming.

Do you want to have gone through what us in D&G and Cumbria - and farther South - went through psychologically so that the likes of yourself never saw it first hand?! You never had to deal with seeing your livelihood being killed Infront of you.

Four camps
-those that had stock slaughtered
-those that were contiguous and fought
-those that were close to it but kept it at bay.
-those that were miles away.

I was in 2nd camp and I wouldn't be ever again.

Mydexta · Feb 21, 2021

mwj said:
Was there an ongoing thread on BFF by someone named Matt? that was involved in the nightmare? I remember being sickened by the toll that it took on the farmers and the folks that did the actual cull.

Yeah, he went by the name of Matt the rat I think.

he published a diary of what he was involved in during the outbreak

egbert · Feb 21, 2021

egbert said:
Gibbo's quiet straight manner saved a number of lives, I've never doubted that.
He shouldn't have been gonged, he should've been knighted.

I don't know that I should repeat the tale, but I know a man who, when 'it' was done, lit his own pyre...with a bottle of scotch in his other hand.

Maybe I should clarify...
the man who lit his own pyre had lost everything he'd worked for, and was- quite openly- emotionally beaten almost to the ground by the monstrous events.
Who among us wasn't?
But he had the fortitude to do that final act by his own hand. He confided he did so with a bottle in his other hand.

I spent a very long, and more or less surreal day the same week loading my beasts, bloated and rigid, onto dump trailers with a telehandler. I understood him completely.

digger64 · Feb 21, 2021

Lazy Eric said:
I don’t think any amount of money would compensate for watching your healthy cows and sheep being shot in your yard and looking at the dead body’s for days before they collected them!
It’s the stuff of nightmares
And next time anyone is moaning about the six day movement rule... remind yourselves what happens when foot and mouth comes into your area..

I dont know . lambing ewes on sugarbeet fields in mud and harvesting turnips by hand - burying heaps of new born lambs/ewes in field corners with a digger , then followed by working for nothing ,spending hours on the phone talking to people who had no answers or clue . It seemed like those who got it were better off at the time TBH .
Although I realise that isnt and definately wasnt necessarily the case ,but they did appear to send the money in some funny directions .
What really got me though was being constantly reported for welfare issues by the public when it was impossible to do anything about it , the nievety of educated people was unbelievable .
I used to go to bed at night and shake or my head would spin as there was no way forward .
Then to cap it all some people assumed I had got rich out of it !

Bobthebuilder · Feb 21, 2021

All farms around us were culled out and the farm in local village with a very high dependency on tourists was next on the list, I swear to this day because it was a bank holiday weekend they stopped the cull for that farm as the village would've been locked down then the following week they changed the policy on culling, I'm sure we would've been next on the list but got away with it

Fendt516profi · Feb 21, 2021

digger64 said:
I dont know . lambing ewes on sugarbeet fields in mud and harvesting turnips by hand - burying heaps of new born lambs/ewes in field corners with a digger , then followed by working for nothing ,spending hours on the phone talking to people who had no answers or clue . It seemed like those who got it were better off at the time TBH .
Although I realise that isnt and definately wasnt necessarily the case ,but they did appear to send the money in some funny directions .
What really got me though was being constantly reported for welfare issues by the public when it was impossible to do anything about it , the nievety of educated people was unbelievable .
I used to go to bed at night and shake or my head would spin as there was no way forward .
Then to cap it all some people assumed I had got rich out of it !

They knew where they were it wasn't a nice place, but everybody else was just waiting for it to come to them. My dad was sat watching TV when the news came on about 9/11 he watched it then just said watch foot and mouth stop now they've got something else to be bothering with. Just before that he sold a dog to a man who was gathering the sheep up for the slaughter men they were in North Yorkshire and he told my dad he'd guarantee they'd be with us in a couple of weeks he said they already had a site just down the valley on the industrial estate ready to move onto

Spartacus · Feb 21, 2021

I've watched the documentary, it was an emotional but really good watch of farmers in very difficult circumstances.

Early on it got quite close to us (5 miles or so as the crow flies), and even right next door to some sheep that were away wintering, the first of which was before contiguous culls came in and the second saved by a canal between the infected farm and the farm the sheep were on.

At home during lambing I did find a lame ewe with what appeared to be lesions in her mouth, the foot didn't look like FMD so it was not reported, had we done I'm sure we would have been culled.

J 1177 · Feb 21, 2021

Spartacus said:
I've watched the documentary, it was an emotional but really good watch of farmers in very difficult circumstances.

Early on it got quite close to us (5 miles or so as the crow flies), and even right next door to some sheep that were away wintering, the first of which was before contiguous culls came in and the second saved by a canal between the infected farm and the farm the sheep were on.

At home during lambing I did find a lame ewe with what appeared to be lesions in her mouth, the foot didn't look like FMD so it was not reported, had we done I'm sure we would have been culled.

I got as far as the farmer bollocking the army and the ministery and not wanting the school kids to see the sheep being loaded.

Hummin-Cummins · Feb 21, 2021

I think its fair to say nobody wants to remember the despair that F&M bought many of us, but surely 20 years on its time for a public enquiry into what can only be described as a stitch up to livestock farmers across the uk. The affects of the 2001 F&M will live on for the rest of our generation.

ed574 · Feb 21, 2021

matthew said:
More here

https://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/special_reports/not-the-foot-and-mouth.pdf

Just read through this and can't believe some of the ineptness from MAFF and other so called 'experts'. I was only 8 at the time but we lost all our stock, including our pedigree Shorthorn bloodlines spanning back generations. I can remember the wagons coming into the yard but I was not allowed out when the killing happened. However I do remember the silence and the empty buildings afterwards. A truly terrible time for all those involved, both those who lost everything and those who had to fight to keep what they had.

Frank-the-Wool · Feb 22, 2021

Lazy Eric said:
And next time anyone is moaning about the six day movement rule... remind yourselves what happens when foot and mouth comes into your area..

The six day movement rule would not have made any difference to what happened in 2001 as the disease was in sheep and had not been spotted for many weeks.
There is no doubt that animals should not be moved on and off different holdings or markets within a short time.
There were no or very poor movement records back in 2001 which would have made tracing in a short time impossible. However the 6 day stand still has I fear driven many farmers to keep inaccurate records even now.

I have always suggested that accurate records are more important than the 6 days!

ollie989898 · Feb 22, 2021

Well I can tell in episode three that barrel of muck shown as the grouser shooters pass through that gate will have all the disinfectant value as a barrel of pish anyway. Fudging grouser shooting should have been stopped for the duration. I'd have felt a complete twonk even daring to drive a vehicle into the general area. You would think anyone with any rural understanding would have kept the hell away.

glasshouse · Feb 22, 2021

Frank-the-Wool said:
The six day movement rule would not have made any difference to what happened in 2001 as the disease was in sheep and had not been spotted for many weeks.
There is no doubt that animals should not be moved on and off different holdings or markets within a short time.
There were no or very poor movement records back in 2001 which would have made tracing in a short time impossible. However the 6 day stand still has I fear driven many farmers to keep inaccurate records even now.

I have always suggested that accurate records are more important than the 6 days!

We wouldnt require any records if westminster govt hadnt released foot and mouth.

Lofty1984 · Feb 22, 2021

ollie989898 said:
Well I can tell in episode three that barrel of muck shown as the grouser shooters pass through that gate will have all the disinfectant value as a barrel of pish anyway. Fudging grouser shooting should have been stopped for the duration. I'd have felt a complete twonk even daring to drive a vehicle into the general area. You would think anyone with any rural understanding would have kept the hell away.

It’s ok one of them was a farmer so understood as he came from a high infection area

Nithsdale · Feb 22, 2021

glasshouse said:
We wouldnt require any records if westminster govt hadnt released foot and mouth.

You need to be able to prove that

glasshouse · Feb 22, 2021

Nithsdale Farmer said:
You need to be able to prove that

Can they prove they didnt?

Nithsdale · Feb 22, 2021

glasshouse said:
Can they prove they didnt?

You're the one saying it was a conspiracy, you need to prove it. It's not upto govt to prove it was real just because you say it wasn't.

Govt admitted they knew it was here in late 2000 - found in lambs which were tested/checked at export. Due to zero traceability it couldn't be linked back to any specific farm... Needle in a haystack.
You might say that's convenient, but sadly it sums up lamb movement and traceability up until the movement slips and tagging.

The way farming was, a massive disease outbreak was always going to happen and cause widespread hell.

Lazy Eric · Feb 22, 2021

Frank-the-Wool said:
The six day movement rule would not have made any difference to what happened in 2001 as the disease was in sheep and had not been spotted for many weeks.
There is no doubt that animals should not be moved on and off different holdings or markets within a short time.
There were no or very poor movement records back in 2001 which would have made tracing in a short time impossible. However the 6 day stand still has I fear driven many farmers to keep inaccurate records even now.

I have always suggested that accurate records are more important than the 6 days!

It’s better than what it was in 2001! Stuff was travelling one end of the country to the other, and many times somewhere else the next day!
Anyway we are getting off subject

Nithsdale · Feb 22, 2021

Frank-the-Wool said:
The six day movement rule would not have made any difference to what happened in 2001 as the disease was in sheep and had not been spotted for many weeks.
There is no doubt that animals should not be moved on and off different holdings or markets within a short time.
There were no or very poor movement records back in 2001 which would have made tracing in a short time impossible. However the 6 day stand still has I fear driven many farmers to keep inaccurate records even now.

I have always suggested that accurate records are more important than the 6 days!

IIRC the standstill was 17 days originally... England & Wales has for some reason dropped to 6 days (pointless), Scotland is still 13 days.

Agree re. movement/records. Livestock was moving too far and too freely with no official - or even unofficial - record of it... as I said in my previous post it was a disaster waiting to happen.

JP1 · Feb 22, 2021

Nithsdale Farmer said:
IIRC the standstill was 17 days originally... England & Wales has for some reason dropped to 6 days (pointless), Scotland is still 13 days.

Agree re. movement/records. Livestock was moving too far and too freely with no official - or even unofficial - record of it... as I said in my previous post it was a disaster waiting to happen.

6 days is better than nothing and I understand was a compromise to facilitate weekly market trading

Foot n mouth, 20 years ago today.

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