Big Changes on the way for Herd Testing

Jed_Bartlet

I got word from a very very reliable source that the Dept. are bringing in changes that are bound to upset a whole lot of ordinary, decent Farmers.I haven't a clue when these changes are coming but from what I gather, we're talking soon - like either within a few weeks or by the start of next year.

As we all know, anyone with cattle must Tb test their animals on a yearly basis (and Blood them every second year). That's NOT changing. But up until now, if you were due a test, lets say tomorrow, and couldn't do it on time, you'd ring your local vet and they'd sort it out or you'd ring the DVO and they'd sort it. Now, they'll have damn all discretion to do that.

Under these new regulations, if you're due a test (again,let's say tomorrow, 17/06/2011, and you can't get it done, for whatever reason (and let's face it, sometimes life gets in the way), 5 days after the due date of the test (in this case 21/07/2011), you'll be issued with a warning letter telling you you're late doing your test. 4 days after that (25/07/2011), you'll be issued with a new letter telling you that your herd is being restricted and it'll have a notice telling you have 14 days to get the test done or the Dept. will push for a prosecution to the Guards. 14 Days later, that's exactly what they'll do!

What's more, anyone who's late doing a test will have their herd referred to some Cross-Compliance section for penalties to be imposed on Single Farm Payment and other schemes.

From what I understand, it won't matter if you're best friend, husband, wife, brother, sister, etc. work in the Dept., if you're late doing your test, the Dept. will come after you.and there's nothing anyone on a local level can do about it. It'll all be done on some computer system and no-one will be able to stop it.

But that's not all. If you're next to a herd that goes down with Tb and it's a pretty bad breakdown, and you haven't tested in more than 4 months, the Dept. will restrict you're herd before they decide what to do with you. They might ask you to test but it could be a while before they can make up their minds. And it doesn't matter if you're compliant in every other which way, if they think you;re too close to your neighbour, they'll lock you up. You could be using every protective measure at your disposal to keep your animals disease free and it won't matter a curse to them.

Have the people who come up with these rules (presumably to flutes in suits in Dublin who've never even set foot on a farm) any idea how difficult life is out there and how these rules will make it even more difficult? Everyone in every sector has been hit financially, but this is just adding to the pressure on farmers. Not only are they down money due to the economy and what not, now these eejits are putting up roadblocks to the very effort of making money.

And do they not understand that sometimes life gets in the way, sometimes people have other obligations that distract them. It's not done out of malice or anything like that but things pop up and we have to deal with them and other things have to get postponed, it's nobodies fault but things happen. And now these fools are telling people that you can't be distracted. "You'll do what we say, or else!!!"

I think the whole thing is an outrage. I can see people making a thing about this so that's why I wanted to tell people now - start making noise before they bring in these stupid rules. Let them know what you think. Get onto your TD and get them to do something. Write to Simon Coveney and tell him what you think. Don't just let them do this without even consulting the people it's going to directly affect which is exactly what they're doing. Ring the Dept. head office and tell them (Their number is 01-6072000)

MAKE SOME NOISE.

snowman707

it's like the milk quota and the sheep tagging the rules are there it's as easy to live by them as against them

most dvo (or whatever they are called now) give 2 months notice to the last date that your test must be done , if you and your vet can't agree a date in that time it beats me

11.30 last night got a a phone call from a fellow I barely know asking would the ifa be able to help him as the dept found out he had January born calves which were untagged or registered

dasheriff

snowman707 wrote: »

it's like the milk quota and the sheep tagging the rules are there it's as easy to live by them as against them

most dvo (or whatever they are called now) give 2 months notice to the last date that your test must be done , if you and your vet can't agree a date in that time it beats me

I agree you have plenty of notice to get it done, I dont think its anything to get too excited about..

Bodacious

11.30 last night got a a phone call from a fellow I barely know asking would the ifa be able to help him as the dept found out he had January born calves which were untagged or registered[/QUOTE]

That gobsh*te deserves whats coming his way!! I'd have no sympathy for those kind of phonecalls:mad:

kennedy138

only reason for those rule changes is SOME farmers are taking the piss as usuall Test notice more than reasonable

flatout11

wtf!!!!
so what happens if you or your vet are out of the country.......
rather than going after the few farmers who are giving the system greif they are gonna bring in a one rule for all approach instead of tackling the problem head on .... its never the 99.5% of us.... but they 'dept' wont deal with the <0.5% of troublemakers.
thats kildare st. for you!!
and again where s the consultation process - to put some reality into the arguement,
pain in the arse for farmers/vets and prob the ordinary dept staff

mjcom4d

Have they nothing better they could be doing instead of making it harder on everyone else

Jed_Bartlet

kennedy138 wrote: »

only reason for those rule changes is SOME farmers are taking the piss as usuall Test notice more than reasonable

I agree, they do give plenty of notice of the tests but it's the punitive measures I dislike. I know plenty of cases where someone was due a test and had to go into hospital or had a loved one who had to go in or worse had a loved one who died and had to take care of the funeral arrangements. If these rules are applied, is it really fair to start prosecuting someone who's ill or has a loved one who's ill or has just died? If it was me and I was on the receiving end of it, I'd go hell for leather against the Dept.

On the other side of it, yes, I know, an awful lot of people do take the piss with their "I'll test when I like it" attitude and they should be gone after but to treat the everyone who, for one reason or another, has to delay a test as being equal is just stupid. To me, it's like saying that jaywalking and shoplifting are equal crimes - they're just not.

Life gets in the way sometimes - people get sick, people die, money dries up unexpectedly and this to me is the Dept. saying "If you have a test, doing it should be your priority." Not feeding your family or anything else, that test. Doesn't matter if you've already done 2 this year, fail to complete any test the Dept. issue on time and you're treated the same as someone who hasn't tested in 3 years.

blue5000

I don't know what the dept is at, how long now has the tb eradication been going on? It could be over 50 yrs by now.

I would agree with the neighbouring farmers of a locked up farm having to test within 4 months, I know testing is a pain in the ars#, but if somebody beside you goes down, it is a bit optimistic only testing in 12 months.

pakalasa

For those with fragmented land, it suits to maybe wait till the area is grazed before moving them on and getting them tested at the same time. Can be a bit of work organising people to get them rounded up.

Jed_Bartlet

blue5000 wrote: »

I would agree with the neighbouring farmers of a locked up farm having to test within 4 months, I know testing is a pain in the ars#, but if somebody beside you goes down, it is a bit optimistic only testing in 12 months.

I agree with them asking people to test their herd as a precaution but suppose you did your annual test 4 months and two weeks ago, under this new rule, they can restrict your herd as you're over 4 months and someone else nearby has gone down. What if you were at a Mart and some Dept. official rang and told you that you'd to go home cause, even though you're you've only recently tested, you're being locked up again until you do another test? I'd be pissed off.

Oh, I also forgot to mention another new change. Up until now, the Dept. require that your annual test be paid for by yourself and any further tests the Dept. ask you to do in the same year would be paid for by the Dept. Well this new rule looks set to change all that. If you've tested this year already and you're asked to do another one but you can't get it done by the date they've said (for whatever reason) and you get one of those letters I'd mentioned earlier, the Dept. will no longer pay for your test - it'll be up to you. So now you're out the cost of 2 different herd tests and the Dept. have restricted your herd so you can't trade.

Are they having a laugh, like? Have they never heard of leeway or compassion?

bob charles

well doing a quick tot of the top of my head i think I have 35 different farmers bounding me. My herd is usually restricted around twice per year:rolleyes: due to our farming system but I have never had a reactor on the lands. I find the Dept usually grand for testing and since they have removed the need for all animal to be tested within 12 months of going to the factory this has helped allot. One problem I have is the dept not allowing me test before the 45 days as I often have animal going out of test etc and have had a few run-ings with them over this. Also if your pedigree herd is due for retest in the middle of your compact calving few weeks surely for animal welfare it better to leave the test a little while later.

Am I right in saying that you only have a window of 14 days to test as they wont allow you to test until 45 days after a positive but want you having your test completed by day 60

stanflt

dont see any change here to be honest-a neighbour lost 165 cows last year in 3tests-as a result we had 4 herd tests in 18months

was happy to do tests as a precaution

leg wax

i dont see anything really wrong with the above but there's always some one who's feathers will be ruffeld and wont like change.

Kovu

snowman707 wrote: »

11.30 last night got a a phone call from a fellow I barely know asking would the ifa be able to help him as the dept found out he had January born calves which were untagged or registered

It's feckers like him that gives decent farmers a bad name.:mad:

bob charles wrote: »

Am I right in saying that you only have a window of 14 days to test as they wont allow you to test until 45 days after a positive but want you having your test completed by day 60

That is indeed correct. Sure those eejits in the Dept make my blood boil. Took me 2 months and to sort out getting my €40 on two calves. They transferred me from office to office and not one of them could tell me why my payment was stopped. Eventually threatened and cajoled them into sending me a letter stating the reasons why I hadn't been paid. Eventually got paid on one but they couldn't pay me for the other as he had been exported???! Talk about being backwards and sly to the poor farmer who may not know their own rights. The TB testing is getting a little out of hand if that is correct about the rules changing. They don't know their elbows from their arseholes when it comes to cattle and farming. If they had to come out in their fancy suits and see how many hours a farmer works in a week, for wages not even close to what they're getting, then they would certainly get an eye opener.

KatyMac

Jed_Bartlet wrote: »

Under these new regulations, if you're due a test (again,let's say tomorrow, 17/06/2011, and you can't get it done, for whatever reason (and let's face it, sometimes life gets in the way), 5 days after the due date of the test (in this case 21/07/2011), you'll be issued with a warning letter telling you you're late doing your test. 4 days after that (25/07/2011), you'll be issued with a new letter telling you that your herd is being restricted and it'll have a notice telling you have 14 days to get the test done or the Dept. will push for a prosecution to the Guards. 14 Days later, that's exactly what they'll do!

I ran into a bit of trouble with this during the spring. I had my test arranged for a Monday but the previous Friday I went flying at the feet of a cow and did a bit of damage to my ankle. Had to cancell the test and was off my feet for nearly 4 weeks. Got a letter of warning that I was going to be restricted. Rang the Dept and was warned to get beasts tested asap. Thank God for a great neighbour who came and helped.

pajero12

flatout11 wrote: »

wtf!!!!
so what happens if you or your vet are out of the country.......
rather than going after the few farmers who are giving the system greif they are gonna bring in a one rule for all approach instead of tackling the problem head on .... its never the 99.5% of us.... but they 'dept' wont deal with the <0.5% of troublemakers.
thats kildare st. for you!!
and again where s the consultation process - to put some reality into the arguement,
pain in the arse for farmers/vets and prob the ordinary dept staff

Off topic but are there many single vet practices left out there?

KatyMac

My vet is working alone. God love him, I don't know when he sleeps. There is great comfort with him from the point of view of getting him to come see an animal no matter when. He was away (on one rare occasion) recently and I waited all day for the vet that was filling in to arrive - good job my calf wasn't dying!