Live 24-Seven - Farmer’s Diary
Farmer’s Diary TB tragedy
Herefordshire farmer Richard Thomas, who farms with his father at Risbury Court, mourns the loss of a pedigree Hereford blood line to bovine TB.
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I can only hope that I still have cattle to farm in 25 years time
”
As we enter the last month of the year and the wind down to Christmas begins, I have to start with sad news. Our most recent bovine TB test was a couple of weeks ago and it returned a bad result after the pleasing two clear tests we had earlier in the year. One reactor is a cow only three weeks off calving, which we have been allowed to keep until she calves. We will then have to rear the calf by hand, or hopefully put it onto another cow to suckle. The other reactor was a cow due to calve in the spring. Her name is Charm and she was the last of that family left. Her most recent daughter calf was due to enter the breeding side of our pedigree Hereford suckler herd, but she was also taken out with TB a couple of years ago. My father told me that the Charm family has been around since he was a young boy and now they are all gone − another statistic of the ever-present problem presented by TB, made even worse by the fact that the test is not 100 per cent accurate and they may well not carry the disease! The saddest thing, however, is that those blood lines cannot be got back, they are gone forever and there really is no end in sight, no immediate prospect of a TB-free United Kingdom. A few young farmers and I were lucky enough to meet with Owen Paterson, Minister for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs back in
October. He said that the Coalition Government has a 25-year plan to eradicate bovine TB. They must be congratulated for starting this large task, but as I write we are shut down, not allowed to move cattle, except to the abattoir. As we continue to lose our breeding stock, I can only hope that I still have cattle to farm in 25 years time.
Harvest is just about over for us now as we have finally finished taking apples into the factory for pressing. On my last load I pulled the tractor up outside and visited the on-site shop to stock up on some of the finished product. It would be rude not to try some cider after all that hard work driving the apple picker; only after I’ve driven home obviously! We are only small cider apple growers, but this year’s bumper crop resulted in a few more days than usual picking apples. In between the apples, we also managed to get the wheat planted, somewhat later than planned, but the ground worked down well and, as you read this, the crop should be up and growing, in good condition to enter the winter. Our crops of barley and oats also look well; they have made the most of the mild autumn and winter we have had so far.
You can never really completely switch off from farming, especially when you live on site, but Christmas is as good an excuse as any for a quieter time. All the cattle are in and in a few weeks the sheep will be, too. We have plenty of fodder stocks and bedding straw for winter, so the pressure is off for a while. I know I have got plenty of jobs to do around the farm, not to mention quite a bit of fencing, but I am certainly going to make the most of the festive period. It is a time to enjoy the fruits of the harvest by the fire − turkey, cider and damson gin! Happy Christmas!
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