Allegorical tale of Pink Eye myopia

O ur country, as with so many others across the world, has turned into a terrifying place as there is an invisible, unwanted guest on our shores. The vulnerability of some within our community was never so obvious as on a recent trip to the supermarket.

Older folk struggled through crowds only to be faced with shelves empty of many essentials.

The cult popularity of veganism seems to have taken a nosedive, with very little meat left in the chills. No rice, pasta, toilet roll, paracetamol, hand wash or sanitiser.

Even our egg honesty box has been running empty despite a batch of new pullets coming home.

Surely now is the time to take some collective responsibility, calm down and actually pace ourselves to the unfolding events which will change many people’s lives for a long time to come.

As the experts say, we’re in for a marathon not a sprint.

Three weeks ago I started a group chat with the Belgium vet students who were coming to stay with us next month in order to gain lambing experience.

I was extremely wary of them coming from abroad – and rightly so, as two of them are currently in self-isolation after contracting Covid-19.

Not having them with us to help over the busy few weeks will mean extra work, but there will be other lambings in the future. Not putting our community at risk is our greatest priority.

This has also meant postponing my annual Quality Meat Scotland audit due this week.

I listened to a virologist talk about reducing your contacts in half and therefore halving your risk to exposure. For me this means stopping any extra visits on to the farm that I don’t deem essential.

My anxiety over coronavirus has caused some heated arguments in our house, with my husband Ian thinking that I’m over-reacting.

I keep reminding him of a terrible outbreak of Pink Eye in our ewes a number of years ago.

It was traced back to a tup that I had been given as a swap, which I did not isolate – a mistake I have not made since.

It went through them like wildfire despite our best efforts to contain it. Our vets explained it was due to the naivety of our ewes never having faced that particular strain.

As a society, I feel right now we’re an extremely naive flock.

It’s disappointing to see the Highland Show having to be cancelled and the numerous other agricultural events in the farming calendar which will succumb to ever-increasing restrictions.

The impact on the hospitality industry and the economy in general will be massive and there will be lots of folk feeling financial pain.

Yet our agricultural industry will keep producing the vital supplies of food for the shops even as the fragility of the supply chain is becoming obvious.

The recent outbreak does, however, highlight the precarious nature of globalisation.

Please stay safe and look after each other and those around us at this worrying time.

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It went through them like wildfire despite our best efforts to contain it