TB and our dairy herd back

The incidence of bovine TB has risen sharply in recent years and areas most at risk have spread from the extreme South West into Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Mid Wales, and now heading north through Shropshire into Cheshire.

In February 2003, 10 of our cattle reacted positively to the test and, as bovine TB is a notifiable disease, were taken for slaughter. Following a subsequent test on May 6th we lost 34 of our cows and heifers; and after post mortem examination of these animals the ministry, DEFRA, decided that all the adult and older heifers which had been grazing should be taken for slaughter.

The last of our wonderful SEPTEMBER HERD OF PEDIGREE FRIESIANS left the farm on 3rd June, and after building up our herd and dairy business for 27 years we ceased milking cows.

There is a great debate going on at present as to the interaction between cattle and badgers. What is beyond doubt is that badgers contract and suffer from bovine TB. It is also beyond doubt that the badger population has increased enormously in the last two decades due largely to the ideal habitat and feeding areas created by modern dairy farming. Consensus ends there, and opinions range from the complete denial of any interplay between badgers and cattle to an expressed desire to eliminate the badger from large areas of the countryside. Bovine TB is almost certainly spread to new areas by cattle movements, but once it is in a new area, it can easily be spread between neighboring farms (where there has been no direct contact between cattle) if those farms (or parts of them) are within the territory of an infected colony of badgers. On this farm, we could, if we so desired, restock 6 months after the animals left the farm, but would it be right to be exposing new animals to infection? It seems to us that only half of the problem is being tackled - infected cows are being culled (at great expense to the taxpayer) to prevent the spread of disease, infected badgers are not, and all the time people in our position are losing their livlehoods through no fault of their own.

It is important to state that bovine T.B. is of low risk to humans, is easily destroyed by pasteurisation and that all of our products are pasteurised. There is not, nor ever has been any reason to doubt the integrity of our products.