Livestock deaths on UK farms

[Red sheep]

First time poster here... I'm not part of the farming community, but I was hoping someone could help me with research for a paper I'm working on. So far, the Internet hasn't been too helpful, so I thought I'd seek some first-hand info from people in the know.

I'm trying to understand more about livestock deaths on UK farms, specifically among sheep and cows. I'd like to find out the leading causes of death as well as what happens in the immediate aftermath. Are there any diseases that livestock are particularly vulnerable to? Is there a threat from wild animals - such as foxes - that can lead to livestock being injured or fatally wounded? How common is it for lambs/calves to die during birth? And (this is a particularly difficult bit to understand), what must a farmer do immediately following the death of their livestock?

Apologies for the morbid question. If you have any personal experience to share, that would be much appreciated.

 

[Katarina]

Unfortunately due the current climate, a question such as this raises alarm bells with me , rightly or wrongly!!!!

 

[farmerm]

Perhaps you could enlighten us as to the motivation behind the research paper and who its intended audience is... The militant anti-farming brigade take great delight in twisting and spinning the facts and figures that lie behind animal production. The leading cause of death to farm livestock is their slaughter to provide high quality nutrition to feed our expanding human population.

 

[Red sheep]

Perhaps you could enlighten us as to the motivation behind the research paper and who its intended audience is... The militant anti-farming brigade take great delight in twisting and spinning the facts and figures that lie behind animal production. The leading cause of death to farm livestock is their slaughter to provide high quality nutrition to feed our expanding human population.

Fair question! The paper isn't primarily about farming, but rural life in the UK and the challenges facing smaller communities. I wanted to mention the experience of farmers as they are a significant part of country life. While I'm not so interested in the economics of farming (as this has already been written about extensively with regards to Brexit), I am keen to learn about other difficulties facing farm owners. I know a fair bit about what happens to animals once they're slaughtered, but I have a blind spot when it comes to 'natural' deaths. This might not be a train of thought worth following, but it piqued my interest and thought I'd see whether someone could fill in the blanks for me.

 

[Guiggs]

Sorry but this just smacks of a stitch up in the making...
You may be genuine in which case I'm sorry to tar you with the brush but in the current climate I'm not loading anybody's gun and I hope no other forum member is naive enough to either...
I'm out, goodbye!

 

[Yale]

Where there’s livestock there’s deadstock.

Where there are hospitals there are dead people.

It just happens.

 

[Al R]

Fair question! The paper isn't primarily about farming, but rural life in the UK and the challenges facing smaller communities. I wanted to mention the experience of farmers as they are a significant part of country life. While I'm not so interested in the economics of farming (as this has already been written about extensively with regards to Brexit), I am keen to learn about other difficulties facing farm owners. I know a fair bit about what happens to animals once they're slaughtered, but I have a blind spot when it comes to 'natural' deaths. This might not be a train of thought worth following, but it piqued my interest and thought I'd see whether someone could fill in the blanks for me.

Basically like everyone else has said there is far to much anti farming propaganda from various groups of people/organisations.
Posts like this won’t get a decent response now due to these activist groups - a new member asking a question like this straight off always rings serious alarm bells to us all.

Due to everyone being able to view these pages/threads I doubt you’ll get the response you wanted. To those of us in farming we already know the answer to your questions as it isn’t a secret and what happens to the deadstock is a requirement of law.

 

[Werzle]

First time poster here... I'm not part of the farming community, but I was hoping someone could help me with research for a paper I'm working on. So far, the Internet hasn't been too helpful, so I thought I'd seek some first-hand info from people in the know.

I'm trying to understand more about livestock deaths on UK farms, specifically among sheep and cows. I'd like to find out the leading causes of death as well as what happens in the immediate aftermath. Are there any diseases that livestock are particularly vulnerable to? Is there a threat from wild animals - such as foxes - that can lead to livestock being injured or fatally wounded? How common is it for lambs/calves to die during birth? And (this is a particularly difficult bit to understand), what must a farmer do immediately following the death of their livestock?

Apologies for the morbid question. If you have any personal experience to share, that would be much appreciated.

Animals die from many things just like humans die from many things. Both die from natural complications even with the best of care. Some die to feed others, some die to protect others. Some animals ,just like humans kill each other for no good reason other than entertainment. Always amazed me why the vegan/ anti animal slaughter brigade do not go after the people that slaughter animals without stunning them first but choose to pick on farmers who were born to tend animals and the environment and have done more for animal welfare than any group of people on gods earth. Some animals including livestock would kill a human even if that human was the most vegan ,anti animal abuse person on earth. Such is life.

 

[Tim W]

https://beefandlamb.ahdb.org.uk/wp-...-Fallen-stock-bulletin-Autumn-2016-111116.pdf

All data is readily available but as always you have to know where to find it
Above is a link to a project done a few years back which lists causes of death in lambs/calves over a period

If you want more comprehensive data i suggest you contact AHDB

Below is a link to the law regarding fallen stock & it's disposal
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/fallen-stock

Foxes/other carnivores kill and maim lambs etc ---numbers effected? I'm not sure and it would be difficult to quantify

 

[Highland Mule]

What sort of paper can you get out of reiterating what is already widely known?

Post mortem treatment of livestock differs across the country, but usually requires the services of a fallen stock company to take the body aware for appropriate handling. If the worst happens, I call them and the animal vanishes, to be replaced some time later by an invoice.

For me, the most common reason for on farm mortality in sheep is probably pasteurella or similar in lambs, and domesticated dog attacks in adult sheep. If an adult sheep suffers death on farm I see that as a failure on my part - I don’t want any animal to suffer so actively manage their humane culling as late in life as I can, but before natural causes kick in.

 

[Red sheep]

https://beefandlamb.ahdb.org.uk/wp-...-Fallen-stock-bulletin-Autumn-2016-111116.pdf

All data is readily available but as always you have to know where to find it
Above is a link to a project done a few years back which lists causes of death in lambs/calves over a period

If you want more comprehensive data i suggest you contact AHDB

Below is a link to the law regarding fallen stock & it's disposal
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/fallen-stock

Foxes/other carnivores kill and maim lambs etc ---numbers effected? I'm not sure and it would be difficult to quantify

Thanks! It's been quite difficult to find relevant information but the report you attached looks really helpful. I've seen the gov page about fallen stock before, but wondered what the reality was like in practice. It mentions that fallen stock must be collected, but I wondered whether this was difficult to arrange? It's interesting reading about it on paper, but as with many things, I suspect the reality is trickier than the guidelines suggest. Thanks again for your help.

 

[Red sheep]

What sort of paper can you get out of reiterating what is already widely known?

Post mortem treatment of livestock differs across the country, but usually requires the services of a fallen stock company to take the body aware for appropriate handling. If the worst happens, I call them and the animal vanishes, to be replaced some time later by an invoice.

For me, the most common reason for on farm mortality in sheep is probably pasteurella or similar in lambs, and domesticated dog attacks in adult sheep. If an adult sheep suffers death on farm I see that as a failure on my part - I don’t want any animal to suffer so actively manage their humane culling as late in life as I can, but before natural causes kick in.

Thanks for this! Interesting what you say about the company taking away the fallen stock - for some reason I'd assumed this might be quite a hassle, but from your reply it sounds like quite a smooth job? I hadn't heard of pasteurella before, so will have a look into this - a quick Google search makes it sound like a pretty awful disease. And I'm surprised about domestic dogs attacking sheep - I hadn't considered that might be a problem. Thanks for your helpful response!

 

[Katarina]

Fair question! The paper isn't primarily about farming, but rural life in the UK and the challenges facing smaller communities. I wanted to mention the experience of farmers as they are a significant part of country life. While I'm not so interested in the economics of farming (as this has already been written about extensively with regards to Brexit), I am keen to learn about other difficulties facing farm owners. I know a fair bit about what happens to animals once they're slaughtered, but I have a blind spot when it comes to 'natural' deaths. This might not be a train of thought worth following, but it piqued my interest and thought I'd see whether someone could fill in the blanks for me.

Perhaps supply the source of funding for your research and the companies supporting the source. Would allow us to ascertain the truth of the motive behind your questions, the relevance to the agricultural community,for which this website is provided, I believe, and provide a more accurate response to your questions?

 

[Red sheep]

Perhaps supply the source of funding for your research and the companies supporting the source. Would allow us to ascertain the truth of the motive behind your questions, the relevance to the agricultural community,for which this website is provided, I believe, and provide a more accurate response to your questions?

No funding! I'm a Geography student going into second year, trying to plough my way through an assignment that needs some tweaking. You're right that the site is for people in the agricultural community, not for students, so totally understand the reticence in replies.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

I agree with the sentiments above, I think that if any animal dies here on the farm, it is a failure on my part, having said that where there is livestock there will be dead stock. I think something we should bare in mind is that farm animals when they are slaughtered, their death is covered by legislation to ensure it is humane, wild animals always have a painful death, usually at the hands of another wild animal and usually being eaten alive.

 

[Katarina]

How does your interest in fallen farm livestock fit in to a geography assignment?

What's the topic of your assignment if I may ask please? Anything involving rewilding maybe? Resilient rural communities and all that!

 

[Red sheep]

How does your interest in fallen farm livestock fit in to a geography assignment?

What's the topic of your assignment if I may ask please? Anything involving rewilding maybe? Resilient rural communities and all that!

The topic is about how changing climate is affecting rural communities - so as you can tell I'm off on a bit of a tangent. I've already written quite a lot about how changes in climate affect farming, but wanted to touch on a few other topics to counter the argument that climate change is the most pressing issue facing farming/rural communities. Not sure whether any of it will go in, but it's good to have the knowledge for other assignments too. I am interested to learn what circumstances aside from weather make livestock vulnerable and whether an increase in deaths are proving difficult to manage. So far, it doesn't seem this is the case, but having identified a gap in my knowledge, I'm quite interested to hear about it regardless.

I wrote a lot about rewilding last term so I'm hesitant to write too much about it again, but it's definitely an interesting topic!

 

[Katarina]

The topic is about how changing climate is affecting rural communities - so as you can tell I'm off on a bit of a tangent. I've already written quite a lot about how changes in climate affect farming, but wanted to touch on a few other topics to counter the argument that climate change is the most pressing issue facing farming/rural communities. Not sure whether any of it will go in, but it's good to have the knowledge for other assignments too. I am interested to learn what circumstances aside from weather make livestock vulnerable and whether an increase in deaths are proving difficult to manage. So far, it doesn't seem this is the case, but having identified a gap in my knowledge, I'm quite interested to hear about it regardless.

I wrote a lot about rewilding last term so I'm hesitant to write too much about it again, but it's definitely an interesting topic!

Enlightening, wish you the best of luck with your research.

 

[Highland Mule]

The topic is about how changing climate is affecting rural communities - so as you can tell I'm off on a bit of a tangent. I've already written quite a lot about how changes in climate affect farming, but wanted to touch on a few other topics to counter the argument that climate change is the most pressing issue facing farming/rural communities. Not sure whether any of it will go in, but it's good to have the knowledge for other assignments too. I am interested to learn what circumstances aside from weather make livestock vulnerable and whether an increase in deaths are proving difficult to manage. So far, it doesn't seem this is the case, but having identified a gap in my knowledge, I'm quite interested to hear about it regardless.

I wrote a lot about rewilding last term so I'm hesitant to write too much about it again, but it's definitely an interesting topic!

We seem to have had a higher tick burden this year, presumably brought about by a milder winter past. That’s resulting in quite a few Lymes disease cases in the community and also extra challenge to the livestock - look up tick borne fever.

 

[Yale]

Perhaps you should emphasise how grazing livestock are part of the solution of carbon capture.

A strong red meat sector is good for the environment.

Air travel and luxury goods certainly are not.