R T. Visits

[farmerm]

This is very relevant to us and starting this thread to see a wider opinion.
We have our 93 yr old at very short notice come to live with us RT want to do an inspection . To safe guard our 93 yr old FIL we have stopped visitors etc as he is deemed 'at risk' If we fail to allow the inspection then we lose our status . We have no idea where this inspector has been prior to visit .
The cost of not being RT will cost us dearly .....but we have to protect my FIL ..........RT office not helpful !!
Any thoughts ......

I would think you can conduct a FA visit with the same probability of bringing in the infection as being struck by lighting whist sitting in the house. If the inspector has any symptoms on the day they obviously must not come and make it clear if you are not happy with their health status they will be sent away. If they appear to be fine you could insist they wear a mask and gloves for the duration of the inspection, even a full disposable suit, keep at least 2m from you and not physically touch any paperwork or other items. With sensible precautions you are far more likely to be infected by picking up a tin of beans from your supermarket sneezed on by someone who is infected than from a responsible FA inspection on. If there are 10,000 infected the chances of your inspector being infected would be less than 0.02% and really only a tiny fraction of that if they are without symptoms. The mental and financial impact of isolation and economic shut down is going be every bit as harmful as the virus itself.

Will you stop your Vet coming, your feed and other supplies arriving, you post etc etc, how will you deliver your finished animals without any contact with another person for what may be 12 months or more until a vaccine might be ready?

Trying not to put this too insensitivity but there will be many 93 years olds who do not outlive the duration of this pandemic even if they do not catch this virus. The biggest risk to many will not be CV but rather the NHS running out of capacity to treat other illnesses and injuries when the virus is at its peak

 

[Werzle]

This is very relevant to us and starting this thread to see a wider opinion.
We have our 93 yr old at very short notice come to live with us RT want to do an inspection . To safe guard our 93 yr old FIL we have stopped visitors etc as he is deemed 'at risk' If we fail to allow the inspection then we lose our status . We have no idea where this inspector has been prior to visit .
The cost of not being RT will cost us dearly .....but we have to protect my FIL ..........RT office not helpful !!
Any thoughts ......

Nice try, can i skip my tbt and keep my clear status for another 12mths without testing while we are at it. Be careful you dont bump into a RT inspector in market or down the shop getting your ciders

 

[MrNoo]

It is selfish and petty, pretty much sums up RT to a T. How many other farms etc have they been on, regardless of them not being abroad there is community transmission, so they could have come into contact with it and can still be infectious despite not showing signs for anything up to max 14 days. Is it really worth the risk?
Just a box ticking paper trail at the end of the day, I can think of far more important things to be worried about.
Also due to some of the reduced acreages of drilled crops (some not drilled anything at all) are we going to get a discount. If nothing planted I dont see why you'd bother with RT this year. Have a RT holiday for a year.
The same question could be asked of agronomists.

 

[Still Farming]

Due diligence, bio security etc etc . would hopefully prevail in all non urgent visits and inspections postponed ???

 

[som farmer]

Due diligence, bio security etc etc . would hopefully prevail in all non urgent visits and inspections postponed ???

what's that to RT ? no visits, no money, all they are concerned about, is creating more rules to justify their wages. They are quite hot on bio-security, follow their guidance, and say they are a risk! After this virus has run it's course, things may well be different, the effect on world trade, not really seen yet, may well mean home produced food rises in importance. A lot of the so called cheap food, comes from countries, who may well, have not got the structure to deal with this, so that may well impact on exports. So, with a lot of luck, RT, and their paperwork, might take a large downwards step, in importance, well, we can all wish....

 

[Deranged peasant]

Come on folks , if everyone said no this nonsense is finished.

 

[DRC]

Your point about no inspectors have been abroad is rubbish, as it’s here now.
talking to two farming neighbours today. Ones daughter has tested positive for it, admittedly living in London , the others is a doctor who has just had her first case . So I’d be throwing that back at them

 

[Princess Pooper]

We had an in-house inspection from our dairy today. I sent all the paperwork required by email first, fortunately it's not as much as RT. Washed his hands as soon as he arrived. Prince Pooper showed him round - was supposed to be kept to 15 mins but they were gossiping. Washed his hands again when he left. Glad to hear that RT are taking a sensible view.

 

[Sid]

sorted in a month? Dont be daft! We are very unlikely to see the number of cases do anything but increase for the next 3-6 months,

Are they going to start knocking cases off as they cure themselves?

 

[warksfarmer]

This is very relevant to us and starting this thread to see a wider opinion.
We have our 93 yr old at very short notice come to live with us RT want to do an inspection . To safe guard our 93 yr old FIL we have stopped visitors etc as he is deemed 'at risk' If we fail to allow the inspection then we lose our status . We have no idea where this inspector has been prior to visit .
The cost of not being RT will cost us dearly .....but we have to protect my FIL ..........RT office not helpful !!
Any thoughts ......

I don’t see how they can do this as this is unprecedented. Stand your ground.

 

[yellow belly]

The covid 19 situation is very fast developing so what was on Friday has been superseded

doing bob test outside is less risk than having to be in the office looking at computer records

rt inspection does not have to done religiously at 12 month intervals as they prefer to vary the time of year to add more rigor to inspections ie not always doing them when sheds are empty

 

[colhonk]

Simply tell the RT ,Fa to FO

 

[ollie989898]

There is too much talk of 'only a few folk will die- more die of flu' on this forum. It needs to cease now.

I am less than 40 years old, have no underlying health conditions and generally consider myself in reasonable nick if the blood test 18 months ago was anyting to go by.

This does not mean any Doctor in the land can guarantee I am at zero risk from corona virus. The same is true of anyone on this forum.

Suppose I did catch it and ended up in respiratory distress. An ambulance is called, I get taken to hospital and put on oxygen. Might not be enough. If you can't breathe for yourself a machine does it for you. There is not an unlimited supply of them.

We must not engage in any activity that creates more cases in short order which will invariably increase the number of cases which do deteriorate into needing intensive care.

Every man Jack of us has a reasonable chance of surviving infection by this thing. What I'm not so confident of are my chances if I desperately require a ventilator and there is not one available- won't be many sides on that dice as far as I can see.

On this forum we have one nutter claiming we are Italy number 2 and they won't be able to bury the bodies fast enough. Another spanner reckons this 'flu' is less worrying than the threat of closing livestock marts and the terrible blow this would have on the pishing beef industry ffs.

There is no way you can justify farm inspections in the circumstances. The idea they should continue is a joke. The risk to the inspector is far greater than the reverse.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Come on folks , if everyone said no this nonsense is finished.

Without doubt...if everyone one of us told them to fudge off they’d have to buy our produce...I mean since when does having the right disinfectant mean You can sell red tractor produce or not

 

[Gedd]

Without doubt...if everyone one of us told them to fudge off they’d have to buy our produce...I mean since when does having the right disinfectant mean You can sell red tractor produce or not

Exactly maybe nows the time to make a stand

 

[farmerm]

Are they going to start knocking cases off as they cure themselves?

Not sure I understand your question... Who is the "they" and knocking cases off what..?

There are various numbers
Number of people who have been affected
Number of people who have died
Number of people who have recovered

then there is the figure for the current number of infected cases... This number started at 1.... it is now increasing fast, today it maybe ,15000 next week it may be 30000 at some point this number will peak and start to fall, eventually it will get back down to the number it is today perhaps that will be in 3 months perhaps 6 months, perhaps a year, who knows... my original point was CV will not be over in a month, we have many months of difficulty ahead.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Exactly maybe nows the time to make a stand

I’d happily pull out but too many wouldn’t so I’d end up worse off...we just lap it up and bend over

 

[Werzle]

Exactly maybe nows the time to make a stand

Great, lower our standards so they can justify flooding us with cheaper foreign produce. RT should get tougher really so it can be held up as a quality food assurance scheme

 

[kiwi pom]

Plenty of large farms with multiple staff, including office staff will still get certified, especially if they think the one man bands aren't doing it. It will give them an advantage when discussing contracts and selling to large processors/retailers. No one ever seems to acknowledge the fact that as farmers you are competing against each other.
The end customer wants/needs to see a paper trail no matter how easy it is to make up, those willing to do it will get sales those that aren't, wont.

 

[Sid]

Number of people who have recovered

These people aren't reported. There was a Dr on bbc this morning who had recovered after feeling under the weather for 48hrs. Is she still listed under cases?