Herefordshire | Archive | 2001 | March | 15
From the archive, first published Thursday 15th Mar 2001.
DESPERATE farmers in Herefordshire and border counties were plunged deeper into crisis this week as new cases of foot and mouth were confirmed, writes ROY LEWIS.
Hopes that the disease was beginning to level off were dashed as a fourth outbreak was confirmed at Newton Farm, St Weonards, bringing the Herefordshire total to six.
Two cases were confirmed at Home Farm and Brockhall Farm, Bringsty, on the Herefordshire-Worcestershire border, bringing the tally in that area to three; one at Churchstoke on the Shropshire/Montgomery border, linked with Welshpool Market; and five in Gloucestershire, including two at Blakeney and one at St Briavels.
Taken by surprise
Chief veterinary officer Jim Scudamore said the rapid spread of the disease had taken the experts by surprise while disappointed farmers' leaders said that with the new wave of cases farmers were bracing themselves against further chaos and spread of the disease.
Elwyn Maddy, county chairman of the Herefordshire branch of the National Farmers' Union, warned about people becoming complacent. "We do have public sympathy and that is a tremendous advantage."
The financial losses are being felt the length and breadth of Britain. The rural tourism industry is experiencing a substantial dip in trade and with each new case the prospect of a return to normal business by Easter gets more difficult.
With the countryside all but shut down and advance bookings being cancelled from both home and abroad, the Easter holiday looks as if it will not happen.
And another victim is likely to be grass keep sales which normally begin in earnest at the end of the month. Farmers unable to sell their keep will suffer a considerable financial blow.
Auctioneer Nick Gorst of Brightwells, Hereford, said that his firm normally auctioned some 6,000 acres. "Grass keep sales are bound to present a problem, particularly in some areas, but one hopes the foot-and-mouth situation will get better."
The restarting of slaughtering at abattoirs got off to a shaky start with the throughput of livestock slowed dramatically by emergency regulations of rigorous inspections carried out on the farms before the animals were dispatched for slaughter and at the licensed abattoirs.
The slaughter rate did speed up markedly but by the beginning of this week storage facilities were full which angered many farmers in the county.
Jean Jones, whose family farm a mixed holding at Almeley, near Kington, said abattoirs were finding that their customers already had stocked up with meat, presumably from abroad.
"We are desperate to move stock but find there is no market for it because of foreign imports. I think that is simply disgusting."
And the move to set up a collection centre in Hereford Market also looks like taking time to get underway.
Nick Gorst said he did not believe the system would be up and running until later this month.
His firm was dealing with a lot of farmers who wanted to get rid of stock under the movement system to licensed abattoirs. Many had just 20 or 30 to dispose of but unless farmers had more than a hundred it was not proving an economical proposition when haulage costs and the strict rules of disinfecting vehicles were taken into consideration. And sending 300 to 400 lambs for slaughter meant going further afield to a volume slaughterhouse.
The welfare of many thousands of animals trapped on farms continues to cause farmers a lot of anxiety.
Feed shortage
Lambing is in full swing and farmers are desperate to move not only their own animals but animals not belonging to them and on tack. Some farmers are also finding themselves desperately short of feed.
Farmers in certain areas are able to obtain movement licences but this can prove a time-consuming process.
John Rogers of Foxhalls Farm, Sollers Hope, near Ross-on-Wye, has 800 sheep belonging to owners from the Builth Wells area and is having to lamb some of them. He applied for a licence to move some of them off roots but said it was taking time. He also had to have a vet present during the move.
"The welfare of sheep is still a very big problem in the county. I think it would be terrible to shoot them as some people have suggested."
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