LEAF 'Speak Out' Course

Here we are in Leics at the LEAF 'Speak Out' Course, to which I was kindly invited.

I have to say it was a most enjoyable course and I would recommend it to anyone who has the chance to participate in one.

Two days, with 12 farmers, all from different backgrounds, all with different skills, and from different farms, all with a common cause - to tell the story of farming, to serenade the industry, and to sing the praises of farmers and what they do..... bring food to the Nations plate.

Here we have Hugh (affectionately known to us as 'Vegetable man') telling us all about his parsnips, which Anthony is holding (affectionately known to us as 'the Gentleman Farmer'), In the background we have Roly from LEAF, and Fay, who's farm won the prettiest Farm title.

This was the part in the day which we had all taken in a 'prop' to tell a story of our own farms. Hugh was telling us that the parsnips he had brought would not be up to scratch for the supermarkets and that they had a huge pile on his farm which would go to animal feed and this was one of the reasons why food is getting more and more expensive because there is such a lot of it wasted.

I certainly valued my time in the course and the knowledge of the other students around me. I hope I can now put some of the brilliant notions I have come away with into practice, I would recommend this course to any one who wants to get our food, farming, environment message over to the general public.

see http://www.leafuk.org/ for further details on LEAF's work

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Speak Out Course

A snap of some of our wonderful Welsh Black Cattle enjoying their rolled barley



It's a beautiful, no glorious, spring day. I have just walked Turk, our trainee sheep dog, up the road, our Spaniel, Lady, accompanied us, going at 100 miles an hour, as Spaniels do, with her tail wagging all the time. Turk will just about walk steadily now on a short lead, which is good because with all this icy weather I have to be careful he dosen't pull me over. it was a difficult manoever at the cattle grid when he decided today, for the first time, to try to walk down the side, so I followed gingerly balancing, and he decided to jump the last half-...... so off I went as well!

I am having a lift to Dolau station at 11.30 to catch the train, ( mindfull of my carbon footprints!)first to Shrewsbury then to Birmingham then to Oakham in Leics, near Melton Mowbray, as tomorrow I am attending the first of a two day Speak Out Course organised and funded by LEAF.
I am staying at the Stilton Cheese Pub, which apparently is renowned for it's food, - so looking forward to that.
I have been told to take along a prop which will be relevant to my farm for a farm walk, ?.................... and to take some newspaper cutttings, not from the farming press, which are relevent to environment or farming so I am going armed with all these things, a large suitcase, containg boots for a farm walk, my handbag full of essential things for a train journey, reading book, newspaper, mobile phone, oh and two bars of Thortons Cakes, new at the garage this morning - well I have to keep abreast of food markets, - don't I?

Is Spring Here?

A little ray of sunshine and I 'm off around my garden to see what is emerging. Isn't it lovely to have a week of sunshine after the months of dark days and rain?

At the back of my garden, by the tump, overlooking our well field, I found a clump of lovely snowdrops looking beautiful in their natural surroundings. It made me think of Philp's Mum, June, who died in October. Snowdrops were her favourite flower, and this time of year when we took her on any trip she would point out every clump of snowdrops between home and the destination, and on the return journey, she would say how lovely each clump looked. She knew where every clump between here and Hereford was, and between here and knighton!

What they say is right, when you see the snowdrops peeping out you know spring is just around the corner.................................

What A Sad Day - We Have Got TB in Our Herd

We have been reading the TB test reults today, and when I phoned Philip at 11.00am they were moving from Nantleach to Brynllefrith with some very bad and sad news. Three of our younger cows have reacted positively to the Tb test meaning they will have to be culled.

All three are in calf, and expecting within the next few weeks. We are hoping that they will be able to stay in isolation on the farm so that they can have their calves before the cows are taken off to be culled. We will then have to raise the calves on the bucket / bottle.

It would appear that the bullock whom has already been culled who reacted at the last test probably picked it up at Nantleach, where we have never had Tb before.

I am now researching to find our all we can about TB and to see what we can do to eradicate it at this stage. I think it may well be that we can get together with neighbours because we should all be working together on common ground if we are to do this.

I have put together some snippets so that you can see what a huge problem this disease is for the farming industry.

Why is it important to keep wildlife away from cattle feed?
Evidence suggests that transmission between badgers and cattle is possible through cattle investigating and/or eating contaminated feed or fodder (indirect transmission).
Research has found that badgers regularly visit farm buildings to feed. Evidence of this was found in research by the Central Science Laboratory and can be seen in video clips accessible on the British Cattle Veterinary Association (BCVA) website. This is particularly true during dry, warm periods when the ground is hard and one of their preferred food sources (earthworms) is more difficult to find. Unprotected food sources may be contaminated by foraging badgers if they are carrying TB. There is a particular risk from badgers if they are in the advanced stages of TB since they shed bacteria and are more likely to look for easily accessible food and shelter. Source (defra)

Fourteen leading agricultural and veterinary organisations met earlier this month and agreed a controversial strategy to start killing the animals.
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The extermination will cover a vast area of the West Country, with the first cull expected to take place this summer. Organisers hope the cull can then be repeated for the next three years.
The proposed area covers Britain's best-known badgers, on the Fishleigh Estate near Okehampton, Devon, who have been watched by millions on BBC2's Springwatch series.
The Government has yet to decide whether to formally permit a cull, but Lord Rooker, the farming and animal health minister, admits that it has "no justification" to reject it.
Scientists claim badgers act as a reservoir for TB, contracting it from cattle and then reinfecting them.
Both bovine TB and the badger population are on the increase - confirmed infections have risen from 125 in 1994 to about 2,000 last year.
No one knows how many badgers there are, but some suggest the figure may now stand at 400,000 in the UK, double the 1990 estimate.
However, any attempts to cull badgers are likely to be met with fierce public opposition.
An official consultation last year attracted 47,000 responses, three times as many as a similar one on fox-hunting, with more than 95 per cent against the slaughter.
Earlier this year a report by Sir David King, the Government's chief scientific adviser, concluded killing badgers would help reduce the spread of TB in cattle.
In the report sent to ministers, Sir David called for a badger cull to be carried out by "competent operators" in areas such as the South West where there is a "high and persistent incidence" of the disease.
His report explicitly challenged the conclusions of a 10-year study, chaired by Prof John Bourne, which said culling badgers would be ineffective in controlling the spread of the disease.
That conclusion was met with fury by farmers, who point to Government inaction and say 2007 has been the worst year for bovine TB in recent times. Source(Telegraph 31.12.2007)

DEFRA has concluded.The Independent Scientific Group on bovine tuberculosis has published its final report today (Monday, 18 June) after nearly 10 years of investigation in to the role badgers play in spreading the disease.
The report acknowledges that badgers do play a role in perpetuating the disease amongst cattle, but that a cull would have no worthy contribution and could make the situation worse.
For more articles and comment on bovine TB see our special report page at Bovine tuberculosis: FWi special report
For any cull to be effective it would need to be conducted over a very large area, such as the south west peninsula, require the complete eradication of badgers from that area and sustained for a number of years, said John Bourne, chairman of the ISG.
He added that it was made clear to the group by ministers at its inception nearly 10 years ago that any policy requiring the removal of badgers from large areas of land was totally unacceptable.
In its final report the group is also been critical of the current cattle policy and of DEFRA’s ability to implement a policy based on scientific findings and advocates DEFAR base future policy on tackling the disease spread between cattle with the introduction of a tougher suite of cattle controls.
“The objective of our work, outlined in this scientific report, has been to seek scientific truth and to provide clarity on the major issues that need to be considered for gaining control of cattle TB,” Prof Bourne said.
“We believe that in this Report Ministers now have sufficiently robust and extensive evidence to enable informed policy decisions to be made. They now have the sound science they require.”
“After nearly a decade of work we believe that we have fulfilled our original aims and are now able to provide a comprehensive appreciation of the overall problem. Our findings will surprise some, and be unwelcome to others.”
He added: “Having shown that the main approach to cattle TB control should be rigorously targeted to cattle, we hope that the overwhelming scientific evidence we have provided to support this view, and the policy options we present, will enable the farming industry and government to work together in a constructive and cooperative manner to tackle this very serious disease of cattle which causes so much economic loss and hardship to cattle farmers”.
In a statement to the House of Commons on the ISG’s report DEFRA secretary David Miliband said: “We know that the badger can play a role in maintaining disease in the areas where bovine TB is endemic.
“The Protection of Badgers Act 1992 allows the culling of badgers under licence for disease control purposes but, while the Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT) has been in progress, there has been a moratorium on issuing licences for culling of badgers for bovine TB. The ISG’s final report marks the end of the RBCT. We therefore need to decide next steps.
“The ISG's report summarises the results of the RBCT. These show that small scale culling can increase levels of TB in cattle. The report also says that proactive culling as practiced in the RBCT can bring benefits but only if culling is sustained over a number of years and co-ordinated.
“The ISG are not convinced that it would be practical or economical to deliver a cull in this way, leading them to conclude that badger culling could not contribute meaningfully to the control of bovine TB in Great Britain.”
The report’s conclusions came as bitter disappointment to the NFU, but were warmly welcomed by the Badger Trust.
NFU president Peter Kendall said: “I simply do not accept that the industry cannot devise a culling strategy that will reduce the reservoir of TB in badgers”, he said.
“Indeed, recent experience in Ireland, where a targeted badger culling strategy has reduced TB outbreaks in cattle by 42% in the last five years, confirms that culling can and does work, if it is carried out thoroughly and carefully.” Mr Kendall has requested an urgent meeting with DEFRA ministers to discuss future policy.
Trevor Lawson for the Badger Trust said: “Killing badgers is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, doing far more harm than good.
“A less brutish approach to the small role played by badgers, such as electric fencing around farm buildings, might well yield greater benefits at a fraction of the cost.”
by Andrew Watts Source (Farmers Weekly webpage)

Lamb Cutting Demonstration for Dolau WI

Last night, Wednesday, saw us arriving at Dolau community centre to give a talk and demonstration on lamb Cutting, Farm Diversification, and Oopen Farm Sunday. Quite a lot considering we only had 1 hour. It went wonderfully, and we were warmly encouraaged by the group, who were interested and asked lots of topical questions. At the end we had a quick quiz just to see if our aldies had been really listening, and gave away some freebies which Hybu Cig Cymru had sent to us.

The talk was followed by a lovely supper and cups of tea and of course lots of chat. It is wonderful knowledge that so many people do care abo9ut what we do as farmers and ahve quite good information as to the happenings in farming and the countryside but we ahve to keep plugging a way and get the message over to as many people as possible.

Thanks for a lovely evening ladies.

Yes We Are In Our 2nd Lambing Stage

Stage 2 of lambing has commenced.. So off I went this morning, camera and James in tow, to take phots and have a look. As we don't lamb here at our house we have to travel to take part in, or see any lambing. This little lamb had been born just minutes before we arrived and mum was encouraging him to get up and was licking him clean all over. There are lots of lambs around now and luckily the weather is being kind to us, although there is lots of rain, it is fairly warm. When a lamb and it's mother go out into the fields the mother ewe will tuck the lamb up against the hedge or tree, out of the wind, and very well sheltered from the rain and leave it there whilst she grazes or eats at the feeders. It is surprising how warm and dry the lambs usually reamin. Of course the shephard has to check them every day once outside, because, as with humans, every so often you get a Ewe who is a 'bad' mother and forgets her little one, or leaves it too long without feeding it, so our shephard, Wyn, takes them in hand........

TB test time Again.........................

At 10.00am this morning the ministry vetinary turned out to conduct our 60 day re-test. We are hopeful that all of our cattle will go through alright this time, as the one which did have a reaction was a bought in beast.



True to form the weather was windy, cold and raining. I have to say the vetinary had the cleanest pair of leggings on in the world, but then they must clean them and disinfect them every time they go on to a farm because of bio-security, which is a good thing.



Somehow I ended up with the job of writing down the cattle identifications, and the skin thickness measurements( I had only gone to take photographs!), but I had chance to talk with the lady vet, who was very nice, and was telling her of our decision to no lonnger buy in any animals, especially cattle, because the risk of contamination disease is just too great. Even with the pre-movement testing, the results are just not accurate enougth to risk our herd going down with TB, so in future we will keep pedigree Welsh Black Heifers to replace and increase our own herd, but all other pedegree Welsh black Heifers, which we would usually take to market to sell on as breeding stock will be killed and put through our butchers shop, and that will enable us to have enough beef carcass to prevent us having to buy in a few Welsh Balck Bullocks to put through the Butchery.

I had several chances to have a little chat with the vet, as the men moved different sections of cattle in and out of the yard. I explained that although we have badgers, we thought they must be 'clean' badgers, i.e. TB free and these badgers being territorial keep other, possibly infected badgers, off our land and away from our cattle. The vet agreed, but also told me there are pockets of land where there are cattle, which are away from all other cattle in the middle of nowhere, with no contact with animals (domestic) who suddenly contract TB. She implied that the slaughter of all the cattle which is happening at present is not the way to eradicate TB and a badger cull was inevitable, but it had to be done in a humane and constructive manner.