deadmail@burnt.org.uk

Mike Barnard <m.barnard.trousers@thunderin.co.uk> wrote in message
<frcbb3pe4smmrlhjpi6nag50cbqamuepna@4ax.com>:

>Yes, I'm ignorant. Of farming, anyway. I was dargged up in the tower
>blocks of Peckham so I'm not a greenwellie person and don't know any.
>No persoanl offence intended.
>
>It's human nature for people to try and get one over on the system.
>There are thousands of farmers in the UK, and I'm sure the numbers say
>that some of them will be happy[1] to do something stupid. I don't
>really think it happened like that, but considering some of the
>racist, bigoted threads that have populated UKRM n the past I didn't
>think I'd hit a nerve like this.
>
>So, my genuine apologies.

I was a little drunk so possibly a little more aggresive than the post
warranted.

However I *do* have a short fuse to the "farmers fiddling the system"
type posts given the misery I've witnessed amongst farmers due to
various bits of legislation pretty much removing their livelyhoods.

Here's one for you; want to sell cattle ?

OK, you can only sell if they aren't going for slaughter 60 days after
they've been tested for TB. The Government funds one test per year
(fair enough; they insist that cattle have to be TB free.) You want to
sell your calves, say, before winter because you don't want to
overwinter them? Well that's going to cost about 90 quid plus vat for
testing 3 of them; cattle that are worth maybe 150-200 quid each.
That's pretty much the margin gone on them.

We won't even start to look at ROCE figures for farms where the land and
buildings are owned.

I don't expect the country to give a living to farmers; I do expect the
country to maintain an environment where people aren't tied up with red
tape to the extent that it's close to impossible for a living to be
earnt (or more to the point with many farmers an existance to be
continued.)
--
K75RT, K1100LT, ZXR750H1, 5TA.

I know I aint doing much,
doing nothing means a lot to me.

sweller

deadmail@burnt.org.uk wrote:

> Here's one for you; want to sell cattle ?
>
> OK, you can only sell if they aren't going for slaughter 60 days after
> they've been tested for TB. The Government funds one test per year
> (fair enough; they insist that cattle have to be TB free.) You want to
> sell your calves, say, before winter because you don't want to
> overwinter them? Well that's going to cost about 90 quid plus vat for
> testing 3 of them; cattle that are worth maybe 150-200 quid each.
> That's pretty much the margin gone on them.

> I don't expect the country to give a living to farmers; I do expect the
> country to maintain an environment where people aren't tied up with red
> tape to the extent that it's close to impossible for a living to be
> earnt (or more to the point with many farmers an existance to be
> continued.)

The 'red tape' itself isn't the problem; in this example the problem
isn't the requirement for a test on the animals but the cost of the test.

--
Simon

deadmail@burnt.org.uk

"sweller" <sweller@mztech.fsnet.co.uk> wrote in message
<xn0f9mhv226l8s001@news.individual.net>:

>deadmail@burnt.org.uk wrote:
>
>> Here's one for you; want to sell cattle ?
>>
>> OK, you can only sell if they aren't going for slaughter 60 days after
>> they've been tested for TB. The Government funds one test per year
>> (fair enough; they insist that cattle have to be TB free.) You want to
>> sell your calves, say, before winter because you don't want to
>> overwinter them? Well that's going to cost about 90 quid plus vat for
>> testing 3 of them; cattle that are worth maybe 150-200 quid each.
>> That's pretty much the margin gone on them.
>
>> I don't expect the country to give a living to farmers; I do expect the
>> country to maintain an environment where people aren't tied up with red
>> tape to the extent that it's close to impossible for a living to be
>> earnt (or more to the point with many farmers an existance to be
>> continued.)
>
>The 'red tape' itself isn't the problem; in this example the problem
>isn't the requirement for a test on the animals but the cost of the test.

It's the hassle factor involved with the test also. Try testing animals
and it's not easy; you need to get them one by one into a cattle crush.
Inject something into their shoulders (from memory a serum type thing
checking if antibodies exist by encouraging a swelling and a placebo
(for the swelling control mechanism)), take blood from their tail.

Repeat until cattle are done.

3 days later bring cattle back into the yard from wherever they've been
grazing and lead through the cattle crush again so the vet can measure
the swelling.

However, you're probably right that this isn't the worst red tape, only
the most recent moan I've had to listen to.

You could add the whole cattle passport system just about making it
close to impossible to own cattle without owning a PC...
--
K75RT, K1100LT, ZXR750H1, 5TA.

"We created it, let's take it over"