The launch of a new bovine tuberculosis (bTB) report has been characterised as a watershed moment by farm stakeholder bodies in Northern Ireland.
The publication analyses the costs incurred by farmers in Northern Ireland confronting the challenges posed by bTB.
A key follow-on from the report is the expectation that it will encourage greater momentum where the final eradication of the disease is concerned.
Ulster Farmers Union (UFU) deputy president Glenn Cuddy believes the scope of the work undertaken will provide the evidential bedrock of the farming organisation’s ongoing campaign to get Northern Ireland politicians and society as a whole to recognise the debilitating impact bTB is having on large numbers of farm family businesses across the region.
Priority number one for the UFU leader is to ensure that politicians from every party represented at Stormont and beyond will receive copies of the report.
And the same principle holds where other stakeholder organisations across society as a whole are concerned.
Specifically, this cohort include the various farm welfare groupings that are currently active in Northern Ireland.
Report
The new report was commissioned by three bodies: the Livestock and Meat Commission (LMC); the Dairy Council for Northern Ireland (DCNI); and the UFU. It was produced by the Andersons Centre.
Its origin can be traced back to a request from the UFU’s animal health committee to have all bTB costs that are incurred by farmers to be accurately assessed.
A key theme of the report is the comparison of the financial commitments made by the Northern Ireland Assembly in “compensating” farmers for the removal of reactor animals with the additional – and very significant – costs incurred by farming businesses in helping to deliver a bTB eradication campaign in the first place.
The report specifically factors in the additional costs incurred across agriculture as a whole in preparing and facilitating a bTB herd test.
Glenn Cuddy told Agriland that he takes great exception with the word ‘compensation’ being included within the lexicon used across any debate on bTB.
“The word that must be used at all times is: valuation. Farmers having to suffer the loss of stock have the right to have these animals valued appropriately.”
Numerous stakeholder representatives attending the launch of the report highlighted the fact that the removal of an animal must not be considered in strict isolation.
What must also be factored in is the genetic loss such a development represents, particularly on farms where breeding herds have been built up over many generations.