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Voices from the Fields

‘The final straw’ - How Bovine TB is pushing nature-friendly farmers to the brink

United Kingdom
Defra
Government
Livestock
policy

Bovine Tuberculosis (TB) is having a devastating effect on farmers across the country, putting the viability of businesses at risk and taking a heavy mental toll. Two NFFN farmers describe the nightmare ordeal that followed positive tests and reflect on how the system could be improved.

By Holly Purdey, Horner Farm, Exmoor

At my 200-acre tenanted farm on Exmoor, our herd of grazing Shorthorn cows are a key tool for restoring the soils and rebuilding biodiversity while providing food for the communities that surround the farm.

Recently, after years of being a clear herd, they have become trapped in the cycle of TB. They went clear in the autumn on their first 60-day test, and with their second 60-day test looming, things felt positive. Yet on the day of the test five animals failed, the majority of them heifers, the herd’s future. Alongside that, another cow with a young calf was an IR (Inconclusive Reactor - when a cow tests neither positive nor negative for bovine TB) and two goats from our herd failed.  

These animals that we lost had been bred to live with the land. They did not require inputs outside of our grassland farm. Nature’s energy can power these cows. It takes time and patience to build a herd with known bloodlines and connections to the farm. 

The pain continued when we were told the animals would be sent to Crewe. Exmoor to Crewe is a 200-mile trip for these five stricken animals, one of them with her belly swollen with her unborn six-month-old calf. 

Welfare has to be considered at all stages of our animals’ lives. We live an hour from the nearest TB slaughterhouse. It is a minimum five-hour journey - followed by a night in lairage, mixed with unknown cows and causing stress. Is this what we choose for these mighty mammals that have fed not only ourselves but our soils?

We need to show them the respect they deserve, so we took time to dispute the journey. Space was found for them at our local TB abattoir, but why are we having to fight for our animals’ welfare? Surely this should be front and centre of any APHA-driven (Animal and Plant Health Agency) compulsory slaughter?

The day of their removal was jarring, with a lorry arriving late, rushed and under pressure from having been to multiple stops. These animals, who had never known a lorry, were forced to head up the tail board when they needed a moment to look. I demanded they were given that moment, but like all of us in times of pressure the words didn’t sink in until both the driver and I were stood on.

Apple then led her sisters up the ramp, a family line of four, of which only one now remains on the farm. I stood there with my husband Mark alongside me, my head in my hands, tears rolling down my face, a bruised foot pounding, as we watched some of our future herd so carefully bred roll out of that yard.

I stood there with my husband Mark alongside me, my head in my hands, tears rolling down my face, a bruised foot pounding, as we watched some of our future herd so carefully bred roll out of that yard.

Holly Purdey

We need to keep farmers farming their land, but is it any wonder events such as TB can be the final straw leading them to hang up their wellies? We need financially strong businesses to build profitability and to care for the environment, yet the TB system destabilises that very foundation.

We have been told farming to deliver for nature is the key aim of this Government, but farmers are trapped in a TB system that does not care for the welfare of the animals, the farmer or the environment. It continues to roll forward in a slow, unwieldy manner.

All our cattle and goats came back with well-developed lesions, yet they had passed their tests only 60 days before. The lesions in the cattle were calcified, a process which doesn’t take place quickly (generally it takes six months), yet they had been undergoing tests every 60 days for the previous nine months. 

This clearly shows a failure to detect, at testing level, what had been building in our herd. But I can’t help but think, at the back of my mind, that we know calcification is the natural inflammatory response to infection, a way of protecting tissues. Have I, in fact, just lost the animals from my herd who were building resistance after exposure to TB in our environment? I won’t know the answers to this because all discussion is removed from the argument. This is why farmers struggle to trust the process. Why the testing inaccuracies? What does calcification really mean when found at PM (post-mortem)?

If we want nature-friendly farming to succeed, TB has to be tackled. It is more crucial than ever that we protect and support those of us fighting for farming, building climate resilience and encouraging nature to flourish. But if we lose the herds integrated into the land, it’s not as simple as restocking and starting again. Being trapped in this cycle of testing and culling is not and never has been good enough. There needs to be a radical rethink of our approach to TB.

By Tom Craig, Carsehall Farm, Limavidy 

Last year we were closed with TB until June. We were happy to finally open again and to sell all the bull calves from the year’s calving - almost 100. We were overstocked so we took five milking cows to the market and sold 10 heifers that turned out to be not in calf. We had planned to sell another 20 or so milking cows and to tighten our calving pattern and not calf in March or April if possible.

Unfortunately, shortly after the herd was declared free of TB, a cow at the factory turned up with TB and we had to close again. We had to test within two months and nothing could be sold. In October, we had the devastating news that the bull, two in-calf cows, three fresh heifers and 42 bulling heifers were reactors in the test. These were our oldest heifers, born in October and November, who would have been replacements this October and November. 

We are now keeping all the bull calves against our will. We have bought about 600 tons of silage, which isn't cheap, and as we can't sell on the open market our only route to controlling numbers is to take animals to the factory, where we get about half of what we would if we sold them as milking stock.

Tom Craig

In the January test we had another 11 reactors from this batch, plus one calved heifer. Fourteen days post-test, they are still on the farm. This adds extra stress and the longer they remain on farm the more chance we have of follow-up reactors in the next test. To open again, we have to have two clear tests two months apart. So, as we stand, the best-case scenario is four months.

We seem to have a problem not on the farm, but at an outfarm seven miles away beside a mountain and a forest. We've seen deer and badgers in the woods and we've noticed the badger scat black, which must be from licking at the molassed mineral buckets put out for the cattle. We decided to cut silage twice on this outfarm this year to limit the time our calves would be there, so 63 heifers were grazed there. We are probably going to have to change the management of this outfarm again.

We operate a closed pedigree herd of Holsteins (i.e. we don't buy any cattle and haven't done so for over 20 years to limit disease). Three years ago we had a BVD (Bovine viral diarrhea) outbreak and lost most of our October calves, we can only guess from slurry or digestate. We have just recovered from this and have managed to increase the calving number from 100 to 130 between October and Christmas. We now have to look at the possibility of less than 100 calving before Christmas next year. We are also losing some pedigrees that are hard to replace. Four of the stock that went last time had over 15 generations of very good classification scores on their pedigrees.

As we stand now, we are keeping all the bull calves against our will. We don't have enough fodder as we never got cattle sold in the few months we were open. We have bought about 600 tons of silage from a few miles away, which isn't cheap. As we can’t sell on the open market our only route to controlling numbers is to take animals to the factory. We probably get about half what we would if we sold it as milking stock.

TB inspections have been running since 1900. The current system, the national compulsory TB eradication scheme launched in 1950, seems outdated. We're not against badgers as we have them on the home farm and they seem healthy, but how do we deal with diseased setts? If we as a society don't want to kill them then maybe they should be caught, tested and vaccinated, with culling only for very diseased animals to prevent a slow death? With new studies in California and Ethiopia showing vaccines can limit the spread of TB by up to 90%, maybe it's time to start vaccinating for TB?