TB Testing time

Now if you have cattle, and I know not many of you do, then you have to go through the action of TB testing.  It's all organised through DEFRA, as you have to notify them when you start keeping cattle.  Your local vet is put in charge of the testing with no charge to yourselves.

Interval's of testing depend on where you are in the country, more prevalent areas are done every six months; we are lucky here in that our testing interval is every 48 months.

The test itself is relatively simple.  Two areas on the cow's neck are shaved of hair, which are then injected; one area with a small amount of bovine TB and the other with a small area of avian TB.  This was done on Monday.  72 hours pass before the vet re-visits to check the tests.  If either of the areas have raised lumps then the animal is considered a reactor to TB and has to be transported to a specific DEFRA site to be euthanaised for which the owner is compensated at near market value.

East Anglia is not that prevalent in TB thankfully and so it was with great relief that on the vet re-visit today, no reaction was found.  Phew!

Red - our Dexter cow, showing the two shaved patches on the side of her neck

Stats today - 

Eggs produced = 4

Sales - 1 & 1/2 dozen eggs £2.70

Expenses - £38.49 Seed potatoes, seeds, garden sundry items

Movement books

Now I don't know about you, but I find that the movement book and the vet & med book is one of those jobs that gets left behind somewhat, and then when you need the thing for whatever reason, it's practically years out of date.

So having a very important vet visit today (more on that in another post), I thought I had better check that the things were up to date.  It used to be that if you had a visit from the vet, especially the vets from the Ministry (MAFF, in the old days), they went through all this type of paperwork religiously, and having had it drilled into me at college about it's importance (my old college mates will back me up on this!) I set about the task.

Thankfully it wasn't far out of date, so the task wasn't so onerous.  But it did get me thinking, is this just a job that is completely outdated and a waste of time?  I understand the need for keeping medical records, for meat withdrawal purposes etc, but if you're like us here and don't use that many medicines unless absolutely necessary - welfare grounds etc, then you don't run the risk of tainting the meat before eating it.  But the movement book seems rather a waste of time these days.  Pigs are all done online now; cattle can be, but still need paperwork to follow them wherever they go; sheep are still followed by bits of paper, but even now they have electronic tags in their ears, although I wish someone would devise one that actually stayed in! The system is not foolproof by any means, cattle movements, like visiting the bull, means that the passport has to go with them, but then you have nothing at all to identify that the animal belongs to you, it's all done on trust.  I do believe the whole system needs a complete overhaul, surely it can't be that difficult to identify each animal and follow its passage through life, can it?  Should we go back to tattooing?  At least that was permanent, ear tags never are!  Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Stats today

Eggs produced = 2 (!)

Sales - Nil
Expenses - Nil