Archived News

8th August 2007 - Wednesday
The last few days have merged into one. On Monday afternoon we heard from John Gunner whose cattle are grazing the land we rent at Normandy.  His animals were showing some worrying signs, for example his bull, Ned just wouldn't get up which is not normal behaviour.  John called the vets straight away and by 4pm they began to cull his herd of over 100 animals. John was understandably gutted.

Monday night was an anxious time, hardly any sleep as we thought of John at home with some of his livestock culled and the remainder still to be done the next morning. And so many questions were going round in my head, when did we last go over to Normandy, which fields did we visit? Might someone suggest our animals here are at risk due to our connection to the land at Normandy? The sprayer contractor works on many farms and last week he was in the cattle field at Normandy and then came over here - could this be a potential carrier of FMD?

Since the outbreak, Laurence had been giving media interviews on behalf of the NFU and on Tuesday morning he was due to go on the Radio 4 Today programme.  At the start of the interview Laurence explained that the second outbreak was on land that we farm, and from that moment the telephone didn't stop ringing. Whilst John Gunner was still having to cope with the ongoing cull, Laurence offered to field any calls from the media to try to remove some of the pressure on John.

We have1000 head of beef, the calves are in barns and the older animals are out in fields on 13 different sites, so it is taking quite some time to check them each day.  Some of these groups were due to be moved because they had almost run out of grass, now we have to take extra feed to them while the movement ban is in place. We take the best bio security measures we can between each site spraying wheels of vehicles and disinfecting our footwear.

One of the issues raised with the Prime Minister on Monday had been the closure of footpaths and bridleways within the 3km zone. I think this should occur immediately in a Foot and Mouth outbreak, at least while the source is still being investigated. The virus can be carried on footwear and clothing, so it seems logical to reduce public access within the vicinity of the outbreak to help minimise the risk of further spread.  There are three footpaths through John's cattle and they link up with a path through the first confirmed FMD site.  I wouldn't wish to see the countryside being closed entirely, but with miles of public rights of way in this area it would seem sensible to close paths in the 3 km zone until the outbreak is contained.

I do still wonder whether standing water in the fields may have some bearing on this case.  If the FMD virus was somehow walked out to the fields, it may then have been carried by the surface water into the stream which runs down from the first to the second site.Back