Heifer destroyed with Court Order

[Scholsey]

Went to a meeting a few yrs ago about doing a cull in our area . The cost was going to be very high based on acreage and headage of livestock . I never signed up to it .

On another point we do allow some lads to go rabbit shooting at night . .......

And therefore forfeited all rights to ever moan about TB again and if you allow people to illegally kill badgers on your ground despite having a perfect opportunity to LEGALLY control them then I hope you are caught and fined accordingly.

 

[Danllan]

Are you two neighbours with a boundary dispute...?

 

[Scholsey]

And therefore forfeited all rights to ever moan about TB again and if you allow people to illegally kill badgers on your ground despite having a perfect opportunity to LEGALLY control them then I hope you are caught and fined accordingly.

Are you two neighbours with a boundary dispute...?

No just a poor buger had had the thankless task of trying to go around in the area signing people up in zone next door to @Hfd Cattle zone.

 

[Werzle]

Surprised this hadn't been mentioned already but here it is

Heifer shot after police enter Welsh dairy farm with TB order - Farmers Weekly


3 minutes


The heifer at the centre of a row between a dairy farmer and the Welsh government over bovine TB has been slaughtered after an early morning swoop by police officers and officials bearing a court order for her destruction.

Anthony and Heather Brunt were asleep when police and government vets arrived on their farmyard at Coybal, New Quay, on Wednesday morning (26 May).

They had a court order for the destruction of the first-lactation Shorthorn.

The animal had had three inconclusive TB skin tests and five negative blood tests for the disease.
Mr Brunt, who has coronary heart disease, said the incident had left him shaken.
“I went outside to count the number of vehicles in the yard but gave up because there were so many,” he said.

The herd is milked once a day and the heifer was grazing in the field with the other animals at the time.
“They had to look for her, I didn’t want to lead them to her but I knew they would find her eventually,” said Mr Brunt.

In April, he resisted attempts to remove the heifer from the herd and had been advised by his solicitor last week that he would be called to give evidence in court before a decision was taken on her future.

“I was expecting to have my say in court, but then this morning happened,” said Mr Brunt.

He described the impact that TB has had on his herd as “soul-destroying”.
In the past four-and-a-half years, his herd has dropped from 120 to 45 cows.

Enhanced measures
The Welsh government’s enhanced measures policy means that after a herd has been in a TB breakdown situation for 18 months, all skin tests are switched to severe interpretation, with third time inconclusive reactors (IRs) also included for slaughter and annual herd gamma interferon blood tests carried out.

Mr Brunt said he had been inundated with messages of support from the local farming community.

“If they thought we were harbouring TB on the farm that wouldn’t be the case.

“We have had nothing but support and have never received a word of condemnation.”

Tb's a bad job but theres less upset in just accepting results and letting people do their job. You cant beat the system.
Farmers that didnt sign up to the badger cull were treated like lepers for abit around here, it was in everybodys interest . Even the arable boys were told in no uncertain terms that its was livestock farms eating the corn and using the straw so get your cheque books out

 

[Dry Rot]

If the offense involves dogs then sentences generally start at 6 weeks prison. And the nursery of proof is reversed, in that it's down to the defendant to prove they weren't badger digging.

Not much different (in principle) to getting your guns seized on the word of a neighbour out to cause trouble. Drop a word in the right ear (or telephone) and they get the helicopters out.

 

[fieldfarmer]

Tb's a bad job but theres less upset in just accepting results and letting people do their job. You cant beat the system.
Farmers that didnt sign up to the badger cull were treated like lepers for abit around here, it was in everybodys interest . Even the arable boys were told in no uncertain terms that its was livestock farms eating the corn and using the straw so get your cheque books out

Lost 13 cattle in one go, 3 were under withdrawal so had to be destroyed on farm, I broke down when the 1st was shot and its still a picture in my mind today when I go to that yard, TB, is a terrible stress around.

 

[renewablejohn]

And if you do it's heavy fine time. It's not unknown for static spy cameras to be hidden on land or in woodland, and you are bang to rights.

Badger sett at the bottom of our road is protected by a camera and maintained by a member of the wildlife trust. Land is now wasteland owned by a slipper farmer.

 

[Hfd Cattle]

No just a poor buger had had the thankless task of trying to go around in the area signing people up in zone next door to @Hfd Cattle zone.

Had my neighbours agreed to it then I would have but they didn't . As far as I'm aware only one in my area was agreeing to it .
Have not mentioned once that I illegally kill badgers .....the comment was slightly tongue in cheek !!

 

[Bury the Trash]

Had my neighbours agreed to it then I would have but they didn't . As far as I'm aware only one in my area was agreeing to it .
Have not mentioned once that I illegally kill badgers .....the comment was slightly tongue in cheek !!

There are plenty of farmers , whom to my knowledge (and some not even wealthy landowners) who don't even keep cattle who signed up and paid in order to do actually do something positive towards the unhealthy over population of Badgers

 

[Scholsey]

There are plenty of farmers , whom to my knowledge (and some not even wealthy landowners) who don't even keep cattle who signed up and paid in order to do actually do something positive towards the unhealthy over population of Badgers

I’m embarrassed by the lack of engagement/input by some of livestock farmers in my area, I won’t sell calves or give colostrum to people who didn’t sign up and take great pleasure in telling them why.

 

[YorksLass]

Had my neighbours agreed to it then I would have but they didn't . As far as I'm aware only one in my area was agreeing to it .
Have not mentioned once that I illegally kill badgers .....the comment was slightly tongue in cheek !!

Good job not everybody is a sheep otherwise there would a worse tb situation than there currently is - if that is even conceivable. The more people who join an area the cheaper it is for all and the more effective for all - shame some can only focus on themselves.

What I find really frightening about the original article is Eng Gov seems determined to follow the Welsh policy on this, not their own evidence that culls b well work to reduce tb in cattle. Its creeping into low risk areas steadily now and losing licences is going to be the final nail in the coffin.

 

[matthew]

Crap situation all round... there had to be legislation to protect badgers from some pretty barbaric practices, so far so good, but the extent of the legislation was far too large.

The legislation has a section which allows ‘culling to prevent the spread of disease ‘. That was subject to a moratorium introduced by the Blair creature in 1997. It is still in place.

The bleeding obvious answer to the TB problem is to allow badger culling by landowners, declared and licensed, and / or vaccinating our herds.

I have discussed this with vets (who get money from there being no vaccinations) and with ministry types (ditto). And none of them can provide a rational argument against vaccinations, all they come up with is a dogmatic 'it's a bad idea'. Start asking why and looking at the alternatives - particularly raising animal welfare - and they start flailing around.

Had we an effective national organisation to look out for farmers' interests, we would now have vaccinations and / or culling and negligible TB. We haven't, so we haven't and we haven't.

That would be great (vax) if it worked. But decades of trials both on cattle and badgers - and humans - has not been successful. Conversely, testing cattle and slaughter works in every country which does not allow a wildlife reservoir to up spill. In fact molecular geneticists now postulate that true cattle TB with AN5 as the genetic marker, was eliminated by our eradication process and gone by the early 70s.
What we have now is badger adapted TB feeding back up into any mammal. Not just tested sentinel cattle.

 

[Danllan]

The legislation has a section which allows ‘culling to prevent the spread of disease ‘. That was subject to a moratorium introduced by the Blair creature in 1997. It is still in place...

Yep, I know the law, and apart from some crazy bits regarding 'disturbance' there was discretion included in it, a sensible thing. But that discretion has to be applied for it to be of any use or relevance...

 

[matthew]

Badger sett at the bottom of our road is protected by a camera and maintained by a member of the wildlife trust. Land is now wasteland owned by a slipper farmer.

They are unlikely to stay within a few yards if theit ancestral home / sett. Travelling to forage amongst the nearest cattle could be encouraged.

Good job not everybody is a sheep otherwise there would a worse tb situation than there currently is - if that is even conceivable. The more people who join an area the cheaper it is for all and the more effective for all - shame some can only focus on themselves.

What I find really frightening about the original article is Eng Gov seems determined to follow the Welsh policy on this, not their own evidence that culls b well work to reduce tb in cattle. Its creeping into low risk areas steadily now and losing licences is going to be the final nail in the coffin.

The frightening thing is that farmers have been thrown the job of clearing up decades of Ministerial failure, and following votes - and the Prime Minister’s latest paramour- thrown under a bus with the latest road map consultation.

we deserve better.

 

[Bald Rick]

Lost 13 cattle in one go, 3 were under withdrawal so had to be destroyed on farm, I broke down when the 1st was shot and its still a picture in my mind today when I go to that yard, TB, is a terrible stress around.

If it had been me, I'd have invited the local wildlife trust / badger group to witness the act.

 

[kiwi pom]

If the cull in your area went ahead I hope you thank your paying neighbours for the help they've been to your busines.

I know some of those involved in the cull, one of their biggest frustrations was some farmers refusing to sign up and pay for it, despite it being a big problem in the area.
If livestock farmers can't stick together on this, there isn't much hope.

 

[BrianV]

Crap situation all round... there had to be legislation to protect badgers from some pretty barbaric practices, so far so good, but the extent of the legislation was far too large. The bleeding obvious answer to the TB problem is to allow badger culling by landowners, declared and licensed, and / or vaccinating our herds.

I have discussed this with vets (who get money from there being no vaccinations) and with ministry types (ditto). And none of them can provide a rational argument against vaccinations, all they come up with is a dogmatic 'it's a bad idea'. Start asking why and looking at the alternatives - particularly raising animal welfare - and they start flailing around.

Had we an effective national organisation to look out for farmers' interests, we would now have vaccinations and / or culling and negligible TB. We haven't, so we haven't and we haven't.

The problem as I see it is when vaccinating there is no way of knowing whether the badger being vaccinated is already infected with TB if so vaccinating will achieve nothing.
Even if you vaccinate a badger any young they are carrying or rearing will not be covered so you have to do it all again 6 months later, it becomes a never ending exercise achieving nothing.
How's Brian May's vaccination experiment at Gatcome coming along?

 

[matthew]

The problem as I see it is when vaccinating there is no way of knowing whether the badger being vaccinated is already infected with TB if so vaccinating will achieve nothing.
Even if you vaccinate a badger any young they are carrying or rearing will not be covered so you have to do it all again 6 months later, it becomes a never ending exercise achieving nothing.

All the trials on badger vax have pre screened for TB and other diseases. Hence those headline 844 shrank to just over 200 in 2010. In the field, up to 50 percent will already be infected or even shedding and infectious.
Vacc8natingbadgers achieves no difference to cattle TB in the area. But it wouldn’t would it? A trial which actually post mortemed the candidate badgers found all had lesions and all were shedding. One ( D313) was so grossly infected that he was euthanised. It is this phenomenon thought to be implicated in the recent story of a domestic cat, carrying the Danish strain of TB uniquely found in badger vax.

More on the cat

We quoted the Abstract from a paper published last week, on the infection of a domestic cat with the Danish strain of m.bovis, found in ...

bovinetb.blogspot.com

But this expensive prevarication does achieve something. A reduction in cattle numbers and jobs for the terminally unemployable.

 

[Bury the Trash]

I know some of those involved in the cull, one of their biggest frustrations was some farmers refusing to sign up and pay for it, despite it being a big problem in the area.
If livestock farmers can't stick together on this, there isn't much hope.

And also arable farmers as it would be quite likely a lot of them would get at least a percentage of their grain , if they grow it end up in Dairy cake or beef , ration calf creep etc.

 

[Danllan]

The problem as I see it is when vaccinating there is no way of knowing whether the badger being vaccinated is already infected with TB if so vaccinating will achieve nothing.
Even if you vaccinate a badger any young they are carrying or rearing will not be covered so you have to do it all again 6 months later, it becomes a never ending exercise achieving nothing.
How's Brian May's vaccination experiment at Gatcome coming along?

Won't argue with any of that, but I want the option of vaccinations for my cattle.