Large scale fraud and criminality on Pembrokeshire mega-herd farm.

Lamb's Orchard · Mar 13, 2024

A lot of farmers have to deal with badgers and TB. Most don't resort to fraud. According to the article they were swapping tags/altering brands and sending the wrong animals for slaughter to maximise how much they could claim. They were retaining stock that had tested positive, thereby increasing the risk of the disease spreading on their own and neighbouring farms. This had been going on for years, How anyone can defend their conduct and seek to place blame elsewhere is beyond me.

Henarar · Mar 13, 2024

Lamb's Orchard said:
A lot of farmers have to deal with badgers and TB. Most don't resort to fraud. According to the article they were swapping tags/altering brands and sending the wrong animals for slaughter to maximise how much they could claim. They were retaining stock that had tested positive, thereby increasing the risk of the disease spreading on their own and neighbouring farms. This had been going on for years, How anyone can defend their conduct and seek to place blame elsewhere is beyond me.

Yep
Gov policy is also wrong

Lamb's Orchard · Mar 13, 2024

Henarar said:
Yep
Gov policy is also wrong

I agree, but that doesn't excuse what went on.

Johnnyboxer · Mar 13, 2024

Lamb's Orchard said:
A lot of farmers have to deal with badgers and TB. Most don't resort to fraud. According to the article they were swapping tags/altering brands and sending the wrong animals for slaughter to maximise how much they could claim. They were retaining stock that had tested positive, thereby increasing the risk of the disease spreading on their own and neighbouring farms. This had been going on for years, How anyone can defend their conduct and seek to place blame elsewhere is beyond me.

Precisely

No excuse whatsoever for criminality and fraud

Johnnyboxer · Mar 13, 2024

Henarar said:
Yep
Gov policy is also wrong

Maybe it is, no excuse for breaking the law though

Pistonbroke · Mar 13, 2024

Lamb's Orchard said:
A lot of farmers have to deal with badgers and TB. Most don't resort to fraud. According to the article they were swapping tags/altering brands and sending the wrong animals for slaughter to maximise how much they could claim. They were retaining stock that had tested positive, thereby increasing the risk of the disease spreading on their own and neighbouring farms. This had been going on for years, How anyone can defend their conduct and seek to place blame elsewhere is beyond me.

Wouldn't be surprised if the cows that went to slaughter were just the poorer performers rather than upping compo

puppet · Mar 13, 2024

d williams said:
What do you mean by much worse ??
They can only inspect to the rules and conditions that are set why would inspectors from another agency do their jobs any differently??

Assurance gives you a month to correct any issues. Most of it is legislation anyway. You get 2 weeks to get your house in order before they come.
Cross compliance visit is unannounced or a call to say they are coming in an hour. They are detective, jury and judge. They can then penalise you 3-5% of subs before they leave. Not recorded some replacement sheep tags. Kerching.
Field size wrong - off their own maps I might add - penalty.
I was docked £500 because the agronomist and the contractor used the wrong spray. A minor issue with no longstanding effects. I never even saw the spray.

Pieces_of_Eight · Mar 13, 2024

Spudley said:
These are my neighbors. We are next door but one to one of their satellite farms. I don't think I can publically say what I feel about them.

I was just wondering what their neighbours must think of them. Thanks for keeping your response polite.

jimmer · Mar 13, 2024

Who picks up their milk?

Henarar · Mar 13, 2024

Lamb's Orchard said:
I agree, but that doesn't excuse what went on.

I agree but that does not excuse the gov policy

Henarar · Mar 13, 2024

Johnnyboxer said:
Maybe it is, no excuse for breaking the law though

Maybe but that is no excuse for a different law

Johnnyboxer · Mar 13, 2024

Henarar said:
Maybe but that is no excuse for a different law

Please explain

Homesy · Mar 13, 2024

how did they get away with it for so long.
When you have a reactor, it gets a green tag which takes a piece of ear for DNA testing. Are they not all cross checked ?

Henarar · Mar 13, 2024

Johnnyboxer said:
Please explain

The law on badgers

sidjon · Mar 13, 2024

Homesy said:
how did they get away with it for so long.
When you have a reactor, it gets a green tag which takes a piece of ear for DNA testing. Are they not all cross checked ?

Are DNA tags used in Wales? We've had AH leave the DNA bits behind before

ollie989898 · Mar 13, 2024

It's one thing to say you believe a policy is wrong or ineffectual but it is another thing entirely to commit fraud and maximise your gain out of it. All other farmers have to farm with the same sword of Damocles that is TB hanging over them- no one is immune. That someone has behaved in this way is manifestly wrong.

Cowabunga · Mar 13, 2024

jimmer said:
Who picks up their milk?

If their milk is picked up at all after this, ever, the buyer should be outed themselves as having zero standards or ethics.

In the pit · Mar 13, 2024

Pistonbroke said:
Wouldn't be surprised if the cows that went to slaughter were just the poorer performers rather than upping compo

Basically they were doing a tb test and the dna tags were put into reactors.these cows were then valued by auctioneers as is practice in wales and then the tags ,dna tags and all were swapped to a crap empty cow which was then taken away for slaughter .
so basically you could get paid eg £3000 for a top animal and a £600 barreners ends up being slaughtered
The problem with there herd now is do any of the eartags put in at birth match up with any of the cows now

BuskhillFarm · Mar 13, 2024

crashbox said:
A better question might be why we (UK) have such a prevalent Bovine TB issue compared to our neighbouring countries (Ireland, France, Germany).

I agree that they are flawed but a wise person would focus on the cause rather than people struggling with the effects.

In Britain we have TB in Ireland they have JCB

I know of one herd similar to that in the article, had 4strains of tb all from parts of south Ireland, from when they had TB

Some farms I know (pedigree embryos) put in cull holsteins, getting full wack, never selling cattle only to government for TB it’s a farce and the powers that be can’t be arsed, 1 of main reasons I left that job, watching 8 pedigree Lims heading to slaughter knowing they had been injected with TB

Cowabunga · Mar 13, 2024

In the pit said:
Basically they were doing a tb test and the dna tags were put into reactors.these cows were then valued by auctioneers as is practice in wales and then the tags ,dna tags and all were swapped to a crap empty cow which was then taken away for slaughter .
so basically you could get paid eg £3000 for a top animal and a £600 barreners ends up being slaughtered
The problem with there herd now is do any of the eartags put in at birth match up with any of the cows now

They should all be condemned to a skip and the farmer made to pay for the disposal of every one.

Signed by
Hanging Judge Duck.

Large scale fraud and criminality on Pembrokeshire mega-herd farm.

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100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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