RORKE’S DRIFT ANNIVERSARY MARKED AT ROYAL WELSH
PLUS: WELSH FARMERS WARN GOVE OF NO-DEAL HIT:
Life on a farm has never been easy. The long hours, hard work and the challenges of keeping animals healthy is part and parcel of the job of being a farmer.
Complying with the highest animal and welfare standards is at the top of most farmers’ agenda.
But who looks after farmers when their own health and well being is suffering?
The 2019 Royal Welsh Show yesterday heard heart-wrenching stories of farmers who face losing everything because of bovine TB.
According to Defra’s latest bovine TB statistics, nearly 12,000 animals were slaughtered in Wales in the past 12 months.
It is the highest number of animals slaughtered since the Welsh Government TB eradication programme began.
Dr Hazel Wright, senior policy officer for the Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW), said the “trial and error policy” was taking its toll on farmers.
“We are talking about real lives and real life,” said Dr Wright. “We’ve come to an emotional and financial breaking point in the industry. TB is now about economics, trade and, above all, mental health.”
Farmers have the highest incidence of suicide among all industries in the UK.
Emma Picton-Jones, 31, who founded the DPJ Foundation after her husband, a farming contractor, took his own life in 2016, said: “As a family growing up, every single one of us was affected when cows were culled [because of TB]. They weren’t just cows, they were our animals.”
Farmers asked to describe the impact of TB in just one word used words like worrying, fearful, betrayal, trapped, crippling, fear, desolation and vulnerable, she said.
Her foundation, which offers 24/7 support to farmers, has seen a big increase in the number of farmers contacting the helpline as they struggle to cope with TB in their herds.
“Every single day, there is no let up for farmers,” she explained.
“In other peoples’ lives, they might experience really stressful experiences two or three times a year, but in farming it can be two or three times each week.”
Two years ago, in June 2017, Wales was split into high, intermediate and low risk TB areas, as part of the eradication programme.
Within the high-risk zones in Wales, there is an ‘Intensive Action Area’ in north Pembrokeshire and small parts of Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion which experience some of the highest rates of Bovine TB in Wales.
The programme requires herds in Wales to be tested at least annually.
As well as trying to eradicate the disease in cattle, another way to stop the spread of TB is to look at badger culling. But this is a controversial issue that has been debated by governments, scientists, farming groups and animal rights groups for a number of years.
One of the major differences in TB policy between Wales and England is that badger culling, under license, is allowed in England whereas in Wales the practise is banned.
Ben Lake, Plaid Cymru MP for Ceredigion, said the overall strategy and practice was “haphazard at best”. “It lacks balance and compassion,” he told the audience, “Not just in the failure in eradicating TB but also in the testing itself. If it was a problem afflicting any other industry, we wouldn’t be putting up with it.”
One farmer takes their own life every week in the UK, proof that mental health in farmers is being failed, Mr Lake said.
“It’s not just an economic argument – to experience a TB cull and then go clear is a kick in the teeth,” he said.
It could be time to look at whether the badger could be removed off the protected species list, he said.
”There are politics at play and not science when it comes to TB,” he said. “If that means we incur the wrath of certain parts of society, then so be it,” he added.
In some instances, when a cow is deemed unfit to travel, either because they are heavily in calf, have recently calved, or for welfare reasons, they are shot on the farm premises. Farmers are not immune to the horrors of watching their animals get shot.
While lethal injections will now be funded by ministers so farmers can avoid witnessing gun slaughter, this is a poor solution farmers say. Surely it is better to try to eradicate the disease full stop, they asked.
Farmers are compensated for cattle killed, but it can mean an end to bloodlines bred over many decades. They also face strict restrictions on moving, buying or selling animals – and have less milk or beef to sell.
One farmer described going down with TB to Gareth Davies, chief executive of farm support charity Tir Dewi, as “heart-breaking”.
He said: “TB breaks farmers’ hearts, it culls their business as well as their cattle.”
Gwyndaf Evans, who farms in Aberystwyth, told the panel 66 of his cows had been shot in the past 12 months after all showed up positive after a skin test. Yet when they were sent away for a blood test, every single one of them was clear of the disease.
“I’ve never not been able to sleep at night, but in those nights before you are waiting for the results of a test to come back, you don’t sleep a single wink,” he said. “If we had TB I could take it but they have all come back clear.”
It’s not just the emotional toll of watching animals he had bred and reared over the years, it is also the financial toll.
“It’s cost me £10,000 per month in income,” he said. “We were quite profitable before so we could manage it, but it could destroy any youngster who had just set up.”
One farmer in the audience asked if it was a case of “save the badger and to hell with the cattle,” to which Mr Lake replied it was the uncertainty which crippled farmers, whether they had TB in their herds or not.
Even for farmers not currently designated as a TB-positive herd, not knowing if they will remain free of the disease at the next test is a real cause of stress. It is farmers witnessing TB in their herds for the first time who were particularly vulnerable.
Rural affairs minister Lesley Griffiths announced in April that she had asked officials to look at ways of reducing instances where cattle had to be shot on farm, which can be “particularly distressing to witness”.
Farmers’ charity, The Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution, offers financial and business support to farming families that might be struggling. Linda Jones, regional manager for RABI said it was not uncommon for officers to see fields full of animals, yet empty fridges back in the farmhouse with no means to feed the family or pay for school uniforms. They now take emergency food parcels with them, when they visit farmers, she said.
The Welsh Government added: “Support is available to farmers and farming families in Wales impacted by TB breakdowns through the Cymorth TB programme.”