BVDFree England only 329 farms.
- Thread starter Water Wheel
- Start date
These pair were up to weaning then just haven't done through the winter.
GenuineRisk
Member
- Location
- Somerset
Haven't read completely through all this so bear with me if I am repeating summat already asked but, if like us you're CHeCs accredited for BVD and tested on an annual basis, plus we always use the BVD test sample Shearwell tags o. Every calf born here to be super sure - why aren't those herds automatically uploaded onto this scheme, if it's so hell bent on proving details in a BVD free Britain ??
not sure what you mean by hell bent
I think you have to join BVD free England and make sure whoever does your testing know you are a member and they will pass on your results, passed tag test results count, Or at lest this is how I think it works, we just joined and then our vet made sure the testing company knew
I think you have to join BVD free England and make sure whoever does your testing know you are a member and they will pass on your results, passed tag test results count, Or at lest this is how I think it works, we just joined and then our vet made sure the testing company knew
Princess Pooper
Member
- Location
- East Mids
If you look at the BVD free website it will show those of us with previous testing results what to do - most of the labs will upload previous results free of charge (only covers a certain number of years back though, varies with company). I think they want to see either 100% clear antigen tag and test all calves for 2 years or 2 yrs clear antibody blood tests from a sample certain age group of youngstock. That gives you the status BVD free, then ongoing monitoring required. So you will be able to prove status immediately.
GenuineRisk
Member
- Location
- Somerset
But why would our herd need to - we're BVD CHeCs accredited and appear for all to see on the Biobest website!! As I understand it (maybe got it wrong), all new animals born here will cost 0.75p to upload for ongoing. We're paying pretty hefty fees every year for high health status blood testing and monitoring as is. Every calf we breed has a BVD tissue sample eartag routinely submitted, even though we can't have PIs because we're CheCs accredited and don't buy in untested stock and the tissue samples aren't sufficient proof for CHeCs accreditation! Who is actually running this scheme - I looked but couldn't see but again, did it quite quickly so may have just missed the originator. I see there are quite a few ads on the site, so presumably they are generating revenue ? Where are the fees going for the 75ps generated and for what purpose ?
Sorry but I am missing any advantage of this over standard health schemes testing.
that don't surprise me,
I don't think you have to pay for all the tag tests you may not have to pay at all, just tell them what you have put on here
Is it just me but the bvd tags are trying my patience....they aren't cheap but they keep snapping or missing or not locating properly bloody rubbish. Several times you get two pairs of tags and bvd fails to locate so have to throw away both pairs and go get another number.
I've reverted back to non bvd tags in sheer frustration.
I've reverted back to non bvd tags in sheer frustration.
I think the idea is its a cheap scheme for everyone to do just for BVD, they say if enough sign up for it voluntarily they will have a good case to make it compulsory and hopefully get rid of BVD for everyone
if it works then perhaps no one will have to test anymore a bit like brucellosis, so it would make that part of any health scheme redundant
but not to worry buy the time that happens some new thing will come along to test for
if it works then perhaps no one will have to test anymore a bit like brucellosis, so it would make that part of any health scheme redundant
but not to worry buy the time that happens some new thing will come along to test for
what make ?
Have onoy had one with a problem out of over 200 this year so far. That's with shearwell used Nordic star button tags last year as already had our run ready for calving and didn't have any problems with those either
GenuineRisk
Member
- Location
- Somerset
Well, still don't have an answer to who this BVD free website is !! Is it government generated or a privately driven?
The domain is owned by AHDB Dairy and administrated by them. There is some involvement of XL Vets just to annoy the rest of us who are not XL members.
XL vets were at the meeting and one of them done part of the presentation, done well IMHO
just ring them up Jools and ask them what you have to do I don't think it will be much as you are high health anyway, if you don't want to join you name won't be on the list if you do it will
Perhaps you should have got of your arse and done something then, our vets seem to be supporting it and were happy to help and they are not XL
- Location
- South Devon
Oh we are doing something, also with the action Johne's. I just feel rather uncomfortable other large vet groups having access to my clients data. I would much have preferred them to use something like university expertise and for technical input. Can you imagine a supermarket giving a competitor lots of details with no concerns as they had been chosen to help deliver the scheme.
I have some friends in XL, they are not a problem in themselves. I just don't want them having access to databases.
GenuineRisk
Member
- Location
- Somerset
Interesting but I just can't see why herds already accredited would need to join. And so far no one has confirmed that if you are accredited continuously with schemes such as Biobest, you would be exempt from any charges for uploading eartag numbers going forward. If Biobest ask for permission to provide all our eartag numbers of our stock to BVD free England, they would of course be granted that, as long as there's no additional cost to ourselves. We're already doing more than most by being a High Health herd and it costs us not only a lot of money, it is also time consuming and, at times, deeply frustrating as more than once we've seen a good animal at a sale we'd like to buy but don't, because it's from a non accredited herd and we can't take the risk - we learned the hard way a few years back. We only buy privately with purchases being subject to a full range of blood and dung tests which we pay for. Then there's the isolation when the animal comes in (even after being tested clear they're quarantined and retested before joining our herd). Is it worth it? Sometimes, we're not convinced !! However, AI stud bull buyers think it is, so on we go. But maybe the above explains why, as we pay a lot of money already, we don't want to contribute any more to what is a duplicate scheme to what we do already.
Princess Pooper
Member
- Location
- East Mids
I have some sympathies as we are BVD naïve and have made great efforts to maintain our clear status and the maintain it through paying for testing when we have had to buy in due to TB, but they will not accept bulk samples as indication of initial status only ongoing. The cheapest way for us to get accredited is down the youngstock blood test route. We start calving in August but will not need to buy a new tag run (at which point we could consider changing to BVD tags) until about December and we will have calved 2/3 of the crop by then. However, if it gets the not so conscientious farmers to start sitting up and taking note and knowing they cannot be buying a PI and eventually lead to eradication in this country then all well and good. Whether it will put a few £ on our calves when we sell all the beef crosses is another matter - if auctioneers start advertising one would hope it will.