Defra's long TB timescale makes life far more difficult
Defra has stated that "it will take 25 years to clear up TB in livestock and wildlife", writes Andrew Collier who farms at Ingestre, near Stafford.
This, in my view, is telling a whole generation of young farmers that they are going to spend more than half of their working lives under restrictions that are becoming so strict that they will not be able to run a successful dairy or beef unit.
Twenty-five years could see the disease spreading faster than the speed at which they seek to control it. The message to young farmers is that the pain will be greater than the gain.
This could lead to massive loss of young people wanting to involve themselves and invest in an industry that is already under-invested – therefore leading to the export of a great industry and, with an ever-growing population, a greater dependency placed on imports.
If this is the best timescale that Defra can come up with to beat this terrible disease which ruins the lives of farmers, cattle and badgers alike – and all the other species that contract the disease – the department will find the longer it leaves it, the more difficult the task becomes.
The timescale of 25 years leads you to think Defra needs a serious overhaul and a new mindset. A mandate for speed and efficiency to deliver a 95 per cent results in five years and TB eradication in a 10-year period at the most. Not the Sir Humphrey Appleby attitude to a good Whitehall department that should see a high level of activity without actually producing a result. The cull needs to be actioned in every parish infected and under restriction in the next two years.
Other methods of control should also be introduced; maybe fencing and baiting – various forms of gassing that virtually eradicated TB in the past.
They always used to say "if you want a job doing quickly, ask a busy man".
The only positive side to TB is that it is a fast-growing industry where more and more people are being employed from the public sector and private sector alike to do the administration for all the Defra departments involved and also the field offices.
The private sector also gains through the veterinary practices and the many people they employ. Private and public laboratories gain through producing testing kits and analysing results.
Then there are the designated abattoirs to handle carcasses. These in turn will keep the rendering industry going with lots of extra profit. In light of this, TB control must be one of the UK's fastest-growing sectors.
Maybe this is another reason it is going to take 25 years as the political will has been eclipsed by its growing employment figures.
Vaccination of badgers is not an option as the science is not as advanced as "the speak" of those who wish to promote the system.
Then there is the practicality of trying to inject such a vast number of badgers.
Please could we make five years the target, not 25 years?
My grandfather would say where you have sheep and 'osses you will be sure to have some losses. I think we could add TB badgers to sheep and 'osses now!
