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REMINDER
Farmers Meeting
Cotswold Edge Golf Club
20th March. 7.30pm
There will be a talk on mastitis control and the new E. coli mastitis vaccine Enviracor. You are very welcome to bring your herdsman and any other interested staff.
Movement Licenses
We are now able to treat F&M susceptible animals at the surgery. They can be moved under the general license system and do not invoke a 20 day movement standstill.
Sole Occupancy Authority (SOA) replace the Sole Occupancy Licenses (SOLs). All previous occupational and SOL licenses remain valid. We can inspect and issue new SOAs and add extra premises to your old SOL. Movements between SOL/SOA premises do not invoke a 20 days standstill but movements onto any of the premises causes a standstill on all the premises. Certain classes of stock are exempted e.g. calves, slaughter stock and breeding bulls.
For breeding bulls, to avoid the 20 day standstill a vet inspection has to be carried out before the movement. It is not clear at present if DEFRA will pay for this inspection.
Sheep movements from farm to farm (not SOL) still need a specific license available from Trading Standards and the sheep need to be tagged according to the regulations.
TB Testing
There is a large backlog of tests to be done owing to F&M. The number of breakdowns is increasing and the extra 60 day tests needed is adding to the backlog. We are informed that DEFRA is imposing movement restrictions on farms where 6 and 12 month check tests are overdue and we have been asked to give precedence to these tests.
There is always a rush to fit in as many tests as possible before turnout and its going to be worse this year. We will do our best to fit in as many as possible.
BSE Monitoring
The collection of over 24 month fallen stock makes post-mortems of such stock difficult. We are allowed to carry out a 'mini post mortem' but have to sew up the body afterwards. (Very difficult!). Alternatively the carcass can go to the Veterinary Investigation Centre, (very expensive) or it can be done at the incinerator, (again expensive). This is making the investigation of some disease problems very difficult and we are hoping more satisfactory arrangements will evolve.
Lice
We have seen an increased number of cattle affected with lice this winter. Besides being unsightly, severely affected stock especially calves will not thrive. Treatment with 'spot-on' or ivermectin type wormer will treat the problem.
Farm Assurance
Most schemes require a herd health plan which we will be happy to help with. Some milk buyers are wanting inspections of the farm and we can do these when on the farm for routine work-time permitting. We will be able to offer the BCVA herd health plan if required.
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