Fresh warning over Covid risks to key livestock jobs calendar

After the Scottish farming industry was last week urged not to become complacent over Covid-19 precautions by a doctor from their ranks, a farmer who has been a victim of the disease yesterday added his voice to the warning.

The livestock producer, who wishes to remain anonymous, was struck down by the disease in the early stages of the outbreak along with members of his family – and became bedridden in the weeks prior to lambing and remained short of breath for many weeks afterwards.

“I have grave concerns that members of our farming community are not taking Covid-19 seriously,” said the farmer, adding that some in the industry were paying little heed to social distancing. “Farmers are not immune to this and the risks are still high.”

Although relatively fit and healthy, he said he had gone down with an “absolutely horrendous flu”, which rendered him unable to do virtually anything in the run up to lambing – even getting out of bed was a real effort:

“If this had happened a month later when we would have been flat out lambing, not being able to help would have been a potential disaster. Even by lambing time, I would still get very breathless and would say it took two months to get back to normal.”

Encouraging all farmers and crofters to think about the possible consequences of bringing Covid-19 into their households, he told farmers to ask themselves:

“How would your farm and business cope if you or someone else was laid up for a period?”