Price Watch
FROM the Beeston Review, w/e February 9 CATTLE Twenty-three cattle over £1,000, 18 of which were over £1,100, but that’s the tip of the iceberg. Top steer at £1,435 from Graham Evans, another at £1,345 and P Lloyd very close behind at £1,325. Some tremendous steers on offer, all credit to the vendors returning an average of £1,037. POULTRY Another busy auction with plenty of stock, a good variety and a good crowd of buyers. PoL are becoming more numerous, as befits the time of year, fetching the best prices. Nine Welsummers sold up to £10.50, a Barnevelder pullet £10 (all prices per head). RIR pullets £5, three Vorwerks £8. Sussex Rangers, Caulder Rangers, Rhode Rock over 100 entered all POL, vaccinated, salmonella tested sold up to 37. Over 80 head of cockerels entered sold up to £8. PIGS Best bacon weight pigs sold to 159p/kg from Mr Rees, grossing a fantastic £181. Just a little lighter came a pen of cutter weight gilts from the same good home, also at 159p/kg (£143 per head). The Lowe family deserve a mention; their pure Hampshires grossed £133 in the lump and local celebrity Huw Williams sold handy weight porkers to £106 per life. Just a couple of cull sows on offer grossed a maximum of £70, averaging £62.88. SHEEP Strong, well-bred ewes looking fairly close to lambing sold easiest, with Jonathan Worthington seeing the best of his two, three and four-year-old ewes, due from April 1 to Texel or Charollais, selling to £122, £118 etc; whilst his Texel Cross shearlings, again due to Texel or Charollais from April 1, topped at £121, £120 etc. In-lamb shearling ewes averaged £114, older ewes of all breeds £95.45. EGGS Free range eggs to £1.70 per dozen. POTATOES Maris Piper £4.50 per bag. FRUIT & VEG Carrots £1.50 per bag, parsnips £2, savoy cabbage to £2. PRODUCE Barley straw in quads realised £132 per tonne, while three loads of wheat straw in quads made £125 twice and £118. A very nice sample of late June second cut haylage met keen bidding and sold for £92 per tonne.
LEADING rural insurer NFU Mutual has warned farmers to watch out for livestock worrying as the cost of claims has reached a record level.
New figures show that the cost of dog attacks on livestock reported to NFU Mutual rose by 67% in the UK in the past two years.
The total cost to the industry in 2017 is estimated at £1.6m.
In the past two years costs more than quadrupled in Scotland and nearly doubled in the Midlands, while the average cost of a claim rose by more than 50% to nearly £1,300.
The research has revealed that more than 80% of dog owners exercise their pets in the countryside, with more than 60% letting them roam off the lead and 7% admitted that their pets had chased livestock in the past.
With many families expected to visit the countryside during half-term and the Easter holidays, the insurer has launched a campaign urging dog owners to keep their pets on a lead at all times, and for people to report out-ofcontrol dogs to a local farmer or the police.
NFU livestock board chairman and livestock farmer Charles Sercombe said: “Livestock worrying and dog attacks have a massive impact on farmers, both financially and emotionally.
“Farmers look after over 70% of the UK’s countryside and many public footpaths go through our land, so it’s vital that we establish measures to ensure both livestock and dogs are kept safe.
“Livestock worrying needs to be treated as a recordable crime; dog owners must be given consistent information and act accordingly, farmers must report all incidents and the police must take them seriously.
“We understand that owners must exercise their dogs, but measures need to be taken to prevent unnecessary suffering for our livestock.”
Tim Price, rural affairs specialist at NFU Mutual, said: “As the insurer of nearly three-quarters of the UK’s farmers and many hobby farmers, we are sadly all too aware of the heartbreak and huge financial loss that dog attacks cause.
“For small farmers in particular, livestock worrying is devastating because it has a huge impact on their productivity.
“While insurance can cover the cost of replacing stock killed and the treatment of injured animals, there is a knock-on effect on breeding programmes that can take years to overcome.
“The number of incidents reported to NFU Mutual shows only part of the picture, as not all farmers have insurance in place to cover livestock worrying and based on claims to us, we estimate the cost to agriculture was £1.6m last year.”
To help reduce the risk of a dog worrying attack on your sheep or cattle, NFU Mutual advises the following:
Check stock regularly in case any have been attacked.
When possible keep sheep in fields away from footpaths.
Put up signs warning dog owners to keep their pets under control on your land.
Maintain fences, walls and hedges to make it more difficult for dogs to get into grazing fields.
Report any attacks to the police immediately.
Ask neighbours to alert you if they see attacks or loose dogs near your livestock.