Archived News

15th May 2008

We have vaccinated just over 500 cattle in the last three days against Bluetongue.  It is hard work fetching the cattle into a coral and then running them into the cattle crush, so we tend to carry out a variety of jobs at the same time.  Normally we check the weight, however the weighing pads on the crush have packed up and will need to be fixed as soon as possible, this can’t be done though until we have managed to give all the cattle their first dose of Bluetongue vaccine. 

Of the 185 cattle taken out of the Laisures yesterday, the smaller ones going out to grass were given a wormer bolus, 40 have gone into Hatch Meadow and 38 to Abinger, the remaining larger animals will move to Upfolds in a week.  We continue to apply insecticide every 3-4 weeks.

We visited a French farmer recently and his cattle were being vaccinated by a vet for Bluetongue serotype 1 which is circulating in south west France.  The vet said that the disease will really get going in about July, as it did in France in 2007 so we really do see the value of protecting the cattle with an insecticide as advised by DEFRA and UK vets until the cattle have Bluetongue immunity. In the UK, farmers are allowed administer the vaccine themselves but in all other countries only vets can do so.  If the UK had followed suit the vaccinating would have come too late, for example there wouldn't have been enough vets to do the work, and we might have lost the only chance of holding this disease at bay.  Although vaccination is on a voluntary basis to avoid huge time wasting and red tape, the farming industry is encouraging every farmer to vaccinate and during the first week the take up has been excellent in the Protection Zone.

Today, Sam, Roy and David are muck spreading at Paddington and then on the Laisures at West Lane, where the cattle came out yesterday.  The Laisures will then be ploughed, power harrowed and drilled with maize over the coming week.