Hill View Dairies | Then & Now

9 June 2021

The clue is in the street name but ‘Old Dairy’ appears to be the only on-site reminder of a corner of Okeford Fitzpaine that was a veritable hub of dairying activity.

Rows of milk churns at Hill View Dairies in 1907. Picture from Roger Guttridge’s book Blackmore Vale Camera (1991)

The cheese and butter factory in Upper Street was one of several dairies that sprang up across the Blackmore Vale in the later 19th century.

Edward ‘Neddy’ Phillips, a member of a local farming family, founded Okeford’s Hill View Dairies to take advantage of improved communications brought about by the arrival of the railway.

In an interview 30 years ago, retired cheesemaker Lionel Wallis told me how his grandfather David Pope accompanied Phillips as he toured the Blackmore Vale farms to buy their milk.

The milk was either sent by train from Shillingstone station to Bournemouth and other towns or made into butter and cheese with the leftover whey going to back to farms as food for pigs.

In its heyday Hill View Dairies provided jobs for around 50 men and women, including my own grandfather, Jim Ridout, of Fiddleford, who worked there as a cheesemaker until the 1950s.

Houses stand on the same site today, which is aptly named Old Dairy

A retirement perk was a can of milk left at New Cross each morning for my grandfather to collect.

I have a vivid childhood memory of walking with him in the snow to fetch the milk.

Hill View Dairies were sold to Malmesbury & Parsons in the 1950s and closed in the 1970s.

The entire site was tastefully redeveloped for housing.

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By: Roger Guttridge

Haggis, the Falklands and DFLs | Tales from the Vale

Editorial team

9 June 2021

Great little farm shop and outdoor café up a dirt track near Milton Abbas owned by ‘Steve,’ but run by two self-confessed ‘smiley girls,’ Sandy and Hannah, who are lovely.

This prize-winning venue is called Steeptonbill Farm Shop and the name comes from the sheep that ‘Steve’ (not sure if ‘Steve’ exists, I’ve never seen him) farmed on Portland, presumably near the Bill (how do you do it, Sherlock).

Apart from having the charmingly haphazard air of being expanded with random stretches of canvas tenting on an ad hoc basis (which I love, in fact, I wouldn’t mind living there, might even meet ‘Steve,’) it does help if you like cats as there are a dozen friendly felines roaming around rather needing attention. These ones seemed to like me (such judgement) and I had pleasure in stroking them – plus there’s an entertainingly noisy cockerel which doesn’t know when to shut up (a bit like Meghan Markle).

It’s got an astonishingly eclectic range of produce, including fresh herbs and spices including chillis and ginger – good, as I was planning a curry that evening. And there’s an outdoor café. Well worth a visit.

Apart from loading up on the necessaries, I bought some goat burgers with red wine and rosemary. I also bought a tin of haggis, but should have looked at the label first as when I studied the contents later I saw it contained ‘lamb’s lobes…’ There’s going to be a few alarm bells in this column, and these are the first.

If you want to know what ‘lobes’ are, and I think you should, they are lungs. Off-putting (or offal-putting) but better than what I first thought ‘lobes’ meant.

So that went in the bin. Yes, I know there are people starving but how am I going to get a tin of lungs and oatmeal to Africa.

***

OK, as I write this the weather is appalling, but spare a kind thought for my lovely nephew Jack who’s 26 this month. Jack’s in the RAF. He was a bit of a drifter and didn’t have a life plan but the RAF’s sorted him out and he’s totally smart and confident now (without being arrogant). He was a Flight Officer, the lowest rank for a commissioned officer. Then came the chance for his class’s first overseas posting.

Obviously, everybody wanted the choice posts, such as Cyprus or Gibraltar, with guaranteed sunshine, swimming in a warm sea and beautiful fresh food. I told Jack if he volunteered for a tough post, his sacrifice and service would make the RAF gaze at him with love and affection (much the same way the Ed views me, although the skill with which she hides it is admirable).

Jack chose the Falklands. Fair play to the lad, he actually was interested in going to such an odd spot, he reckoned Cyprus would come later when he was a Wing Commander flying Spitfires (or whatever they have now, probably updated them, may have stuck a jet engine in, possibly SatNav and parking sensors).

He flew out three days ago (refueling at Dakah in the 18 hour flight) in the West African nation of Senegal, not the Ascension Islands). So, now this delightful fella is adjutant at the RAF base 8,064 miles away – the final 64 miles must have been a killer (‘Are we there yet?,‘I need a wee’). And he is now Acting Flight Lieutenant, his first promotion.

I can honestly say that this is the first time I have ever given anyone advice that has worked out well (except the editor of this magazine, I wait in vain for gratitude) although Jack has gone from one British winter to a South Atlantic Winter (temperatures in August can reach a balmy minus 10) and he returns in November to another British winter.

I’m unsure if he knew this when he took his uncle’s advice, and I detected a slight reserve on his part when I phoned on the day of his departure. ‘It’s character forming,’ I told him, with all the assurance of someone not going to the Falklands for seven months. ‘Mmmm,’ he said.

***

My wife Kae and her friend Linda went to the charming little rural cafe, Petranettes at Pleck Hill on the Mappowder to Hazlebury road, run by two sweet German sisters, Petra and Anette.

If you like eating cake while looking at stunning views, Petranette’s is for you.

But not when they went.

Watching the barn rocked by gusts of 55 MPH gusts, drinking hot chocolate and each wrapped in the equivalent of eight, 50-tog duvets, they agreed that it was ‘atmospheric’. I love Linda. Despite her youth, she is delightfully old fashioned, in person and dress, and uses words like ‘behove’ and ‘umbrage’. We need to cherish these oddities. – Laura, could you take that bit out as Linda is an avid reader of the mag (OK, Ed).

***

Watch out for the DFLs

Driving to Marnhull we’d obviously pressed the ‘invisible’ button on our car as several enormous sparklingly clean 4x4s, clearly owning the road, swept past on narrow lanes without bothering to move to the edge of the road, causing us to pull-in. No acknowledgement.

‘DFLs,’ Kae said.

Readers will know DFL stands for Down From London (there is a ruder definition, available by request). But this may be a good thing. London wealth, and believe me, these people know how to spend, will spread throughout Dorset.

So we in the Blackmore Vale must be ‘big’ about DFLs (they’re easily recognizable, they don’t smile and they avoid eye-contact). Our shops, restaurants, pubs, and all who they employ and who supply them, will benefit from the wealth of people (for whom rural living must be a quaint mystery) so if we all could adopt a humble attitude when they arrive after lockdown, perhaps doff our caps and say ‘aarhhh, that be rioight tasty,’ over a pewter mug of ‘zider’, our county will be the better for it. They’re just a bit annoying. But I do wish I owned a tank (which at one time, I actually looked at doing). No pulling over then.

***

I see from last issue’s letters page that I have one fan. That’s one out of this magazine’s proven regular on-line readers (readership is increasing every month. Proof that a quality online magazine works. I hate to say this, but Laura the Ed must be doing something right.

My fan is Mike Jones of Sherborne. Now, I don’t know Mike, but he clearly is a man of enormous intelligence and taste. I’m guessing he’s a professor or prominent barrister, possibly very handsome with American teeth. Writes elegant poetry, when he’s not raising funds for an orphanage, in his spare time.

I understand Laura is getting a blue plaque made for this wonderful man with the words, ‘Mike Jones – living proof that at least 0.006% of readers find Andy’s columns ‘amusing’.

I’m hoping that by the time of the fourth lockdown I’ll increase my fan base to 1% of readers, so please mail Laura.

***

As the mid early Bank Holiday weekend approached I suddenly found we were almost out of oil for our boiler. I searched online for suppliers and one quoted more than £800, a sum which included a premium for quick delivery.

Ford Fuels of Gibbs Marsh delivered 766 litres the next day for £328, no surcharge, just good service organized by a pleasant lady called Harriet.

And the very next day, the Saturday of the Bank Holiday, made remarkable for cold wind and rain, our boiler stopped working due to leaking pipes elsewhere in the house.

No hot water or central heating for three days. I mentioned this in a mail to my nephew in the Falklands. ‘Good,’ he replied. Am I being paranoid, or was there a slight air of resentment?

***

I see that The Fox in Corscombe is now run by chef Mark Hix and is attracting a bit of flack for banging in a ‘discretionary’ service charge of 12.5% on all food, including bar snacks. He’s also adopted the, in my view, questionable policy of charging separately (£3.75) for each side dish (on top of which is the ‘discretionary’ 12.5% charge). It may be the urban thing, but for a country boozer during a pandemic?

Readers may have views about this. Certainly those who’ve visited have and scores on Trip Advisor are not what Mark, undoubtedly a great chef, is aiming for. But I’m intrigued by one review that says, ‘it’s all a bit fur coat and no knickers’. If any reader can enlighten me on this comment do let me know.

***

There’s a delightful plaque outside Eastway House in Blandford’s East Street commemorating John Ayliffe (Laura you can down load the plaque which refers to him as ‘infamous local estate agent, fraudster and forger’).

The plaque does Ayliffe credit, as he appears to have been an out-and-out rascal and his career ended on November 7^th, 1759 when he was executed at Tyburn ‘for forgery’.

Until the day before the sentence Ayliffe was pretty sure he’d be let off with a pardon. I admire his sunny disposition. And he was about to be pardoned by the astonishingly generous Henry Fox, who Ayliffe had robbed, but as Mr Fox went to ask for the pardon he received evidence of new crimes Ayliffe committed and Fox, unsurprisingly, changed his mind.

Now, you’d think that such practices in those days could not be repeated in the modern age. Wrong.

I read in The Times only a few weeks ago about a modern Ayliffe. Step forward conman, chancer, serial liar Mark Acklom who courted a lonely widow, telling her that he was wealthy and hinted that his role as an international banker was a cover for his real work with MI6.

Alarm bells, you’d think, as by and large secret agents don’t generally go about announcing that they’re a secret agent. Sort of ruins the point of being a secret agent. Look at James Bond. You’d never guess he’s a spy.

Acklom took the widow to an airfield and pointed out the planes he ‘owned’. He drove her around in a smart car (hired for the day) pointing out large houses that he ‘owned’. He also claimed to be the illegitimate son of George Soros, the billionaire banker.

And then, wait for it, one of his businesses ‘had a cash flow problem’, could he borrow £27,000 (alarm bells) from the widow. She obliged. Then he plausibly explained why he needed more. All in all he ‘borrowed’ more than £800,000 from the widow which she never saw again.

Acklom was finally caught and received a prison sentence. With a lot of vulnerable people around, we must help our lonely neighbours.

***

I note that in the last issue of your online Blackmore Vale, the very lovely (but shockingly uncultured) editor Laura covered the newly refurbished Plough at Manston. The pub boasted about their Shepherd’s Pie.

That’s The gauntlet laid firmly down.

Now, I presume they do mean Shepherd’s Pie (lamb mince) not Cottage Pie (beef mince) or American Pie (a song by Don McLean).

I’m not a boastful man (Really? Ed) but I reckon my Shepherd’s Pie’s a world-beater. I got my recipe from my Italian mate, Alessandro Testa (from Bologna) who was my neighbour in France, and from (wait for this) Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones.

The big secret is very-finely grated carrot, which gives sweetness. And apart from finally chopped celery, before you put the cheesy (unpeeled) mashed chids on top, you spread a thin layer of cooked grated onion on top of the mix.

Keef’s toned-down his riders (conditions insisted on by touring bands, which venues must adhere to) for concerts (I shudder to think what they were when his security clearance badge stated ‘Excess All Areas’) but a rider which remains is that there must be a pre-show cottage pie, to the recipe noted above.

And for young musicians, here’s a fact: the band Van Halen had a rider which famously stated the venue must provide M&Ms in the dressing room, ‘but all brown ones removed’. A quirky condition you’ll think, but there was a serious reason for this.

Their stage equipment was so heavy that included in the riders was a condition that stages must be able to carry a specific weight of equipment (I make the same request when I buy boxer shorts). The tour manager needed to know that all requests had been read and were carried out. If the band got brown smarties, there was a chance the venue hadn’t bothered to read the other stipulations and the gig was off.

***

Bit short on puns, this month’s column, and I’m worried I’m letting Mike of Sherborne down, and we’re rather getting on.

So I’ll close by saying another reader, having read some wonderfully-crafted puns in my last column, asks if I ‘live in the Punjab’ (now that’s a bad ‘un and it has no place in a quality on-line magazine).

So, I will answer (in similar Indian geographic wordplay style) and say ‘with that pun, we’re going from Hyderabad to Hyderaworse’, and immediately, I’ve lifted the tone.

OK, Mike? Still a fan?

By: Andy Palmer

Tiger in the Sky

Editorial team

9 June 2021

If you’re fortunate enough to see a yellow Tiger Month bi-plane 2,000 feet above you in the Blackmore Vale performing death-defying stunts then you are probably watching local hero David Morgan DSC testing his flying skills to the limit.

And his life is as colourful as his plane.

David Morgan during the Falklands conflict, where he was awarded the DSC

Shaftsbury resident David was the most successful RAF pilot during the Falklands conflict, destroying four Argentine aircraft, including two Skyhawks which were attacking British landing craft.

The son of a Fleet Air Arm Seafire (the Royal Navy’s Spitfire) pilot, he trained with the RN as a helicopter pilot before moving to the RAF flying Wessex helicopters.

He then passed the highly-demanding course to fly supersonic Harrier GR3s and became one of the first Electronic Warfare instructors.

During the Falkland’s conflict David flew more than 50 sorties both ground attack and air combat patrol. His Sea Harrier was damaged by anti-aircraft fire over Stanley Airfield on the first raid but he skillfully nursed the stricken £20 million jet back to the unsteady deck of the carrier HMS Hermes, plunging in heavy seas.

David in the hangar with the Yellow Tiger Moth

He was credited with the destruction of two Argentine helicopters and two A4 Skyhawks which were attacking British landing craft, saving hundreds of lives.

For this skilled and dangerous attack David, known as Mog, was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, only the second such award given to a RAF pilot since WWII – and making him the last RAF pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft. He also joined an attack sinking an Argentine intelligence-gathering ship, and flew several missions in a Wessex helicopter.

‘Every moment in the air counts,’ he says, ‘split-second decisions must be right, and that’s where the RAF’s superb training kicks-in. You cannot make a mistake. Once you’re off the deck of the carrier, you don’t have time to be frightened.’

After the conflict he was appointed to senior instructor roles, flying in 200 airshows, and became unit test pilot at Yeovilton, flying from the carriers Hermes, Invincible, Illustrious and Ark Royal.

David wrote a highly-regarded memoir of his Falklands service ‘Hostile Skies’, published by Orion, which is being translated in Spanish due to high demand in Argentina. It is also available as an audio-book.

David is married with two grown children and five grandchildren and now lives near Shaftesbury, in Dorset. He flew a total of 4,700 hours in the forces (2,500 on Harriers) and has recently retired from commercial flying as a Boeing 747-400 captain, with a total of over 16,400 hours in the air.

David with three of his grandchildren in his yellow Tiger Moth at Compton Abbas Airfield

He now teaches aerobatics in his vintage Tiger Moth from Compton Abbas airfield, the UK’s highest private aerodrome, which welcomes visitors to its smart restaurant/viewing gallery and bar (Covid restrictions applying).

By: Andy Palmer

Dorset Charities Conference Round up

Editorial team

9 June 2021

Last month saw the 9^th Annual Dorset Charities Conference held by Ward Goodman. As with many events in the past 18 months this became a virtual affair, but that did not stop over 100 charities from being represented as the delegates watched and listened to experts and professionals within the charity sector from Dorset and nationwide.

The keynote presentation entitled ‘The State of The Sector’ was given by Rita Chadha, CEO of the Small Charities Coalition.

The Small Charities Coalition helps small organisations with a social purpose to change lives, improve communities and broaden people’s opportunities.

Rita joined the Small Charities Coalition in July 2019 as CEO. Starting at the age of 15 as a volunteer, Rita has worked for a number of local and national charities on issues related to inequality and social justice and also remains a volunteer and trustee of a number of organisations.

Next up was Alex Picot from Dorset Community Action. DCA are a charity that exists to support charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises across the Dorset community. Their mission is to bring people together to develop community based solutions that deliver better services for the benefit of all. They support new and established groups and projects though 1:1 advice, tailored consultancy and group-based training to enable them to be successful and financially sustainable.

Alex is CEO for Dorset Community Action and provided a presentation entitled ‘Is there life after COVID?’

Further presentations covered investments, accounting updates, legal updates and charity banking from :-

James Johnsen – Director, Church House Investment Management

Paul Zoltowski – Client Director, Church House Investment Management

Jen Richardson – Head of Charities, Ward Goodman

Sophie Cass – Associate, Bates Wells

Ben Harris – Business Development Manager, CAF Bank

The final presentation came from Jane Galloway, Senior Lecturer at Chichester University and Lead Consultant at Arclight Solutions Ltd.

The University of Chichester is home to the world’s first degree in fundraising, Charity Development BA (Hons.). It offers students a unique opportunity to learn the skills essential to successful fundraising, such as marketing, planning, event management and donor care. The course is recognised by the Chartered Institute of Fundraising.

Charity Development students, at the University of Chichester know how to work hard and play hard, and it’s all for a good cause. This year they’re putting on a show, all in aid of the New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth and have an ambitious target to raise £20,000 for the theatre, which has been really badly affected financially, during the coronavirus pandemic.

“The arts have suffered greatly throughout 2020/21 and the New Theatre Royal is no exception, as it’s facing its biggest challenge in its 160 year history, and we are immensely grateful to the Chichester University students for all their fundraising support.” Sheena Hulme. Operations Director, New Theatre Royal.

Donna Day Lafferty, the course founder explained that “The intention is to offer students plenty of real-life fundraising opportunities, while giving them a firm foundation of applicable theory. There is a lack of highly trained fundraisers ready to hit the ground running, and an ever growing need. A career in charitable fundraising is often overlooked and many people ‘fall’ into fundraising without qualifications. Virtually everyone’s life is touched by the work of the charitable sector, so we all benefit from knowledgeable fundraisers who raise funds efficiently while showing donors the respect they deserve.”

Rounding off the conference was a Q&A session hosted by the Managing Director of Ward Goodman, Ian Rodd. Delegates were able to put a wide range of questions to the expert panel from what Covid support is still available to ways to scale up fundraising requirements to cover shortfalls in operational funding.

You can watch all of the presentations and download all slides via www.wardgoodman.co.uk/dcc

Two Harps in Wardour Chapel

Editorial team

9 June 2021

What could be more heavenly?

Saturday 3rd July 5pm

Tickets £12 – £33. Advance sales only – Social distance seating

Booking open now – https://www.cherubimtrust.org/events-1/harp-winners-concert

The Australian Trade Deal – What Does It Really Mean to Our Farmers?

Editorial team

8 June 2021

With over 30 years’ experience in hospitality, food and drink at The Langton Arms, a successful butchery in the form of Rawston Farm Butchery and having hailed from a fifth-generation farming family, I’ve been invited to talk about the Australian trade deal, and what it means to the UK farming community.

We did a casual survey, and when asked, even fellow farmers did not know the ins and outs of the Australian trade deal our government are not-so-quietly making on our behalf as a nation. In fact, when you investigate more closely, there really is not a lot of information available in the public domain, which raises eyebrows, considering the implicit effect it will unarguably have on our UK based farmers, growers and producers.

In an article featured over at BBC online, Liz Truss, Trade Secretary tells MP’s “I am always looking to make sure British farmers will not be undercut by unfair practices from elsewhere,”. However, the UK are known to have among the highest standards in hygiene and animal welfare. As Tanya Steele, Chief Executive of WWF-UK critically states, “A rushed trade deal with Australia could drive a coach and horses through those efforts and provide a gateway into the UK for foods produced in ways that harm the environment.”*

British farmers have such high welfare farming standards compared to anywhere else in the world. We’ve seen countless examples of how cheap imported meat is making its way into our food chain almost under the radar.

Australian beef, for example, is produced intensively and more cheaply than can be done in UK. In this deal, Australia’s top beef exporter expects to increase sales to the UK tenfold, so clearly it is impossible that our high standards will not be compromised, and once again the consumer will be able to be easily mislead about what they are eating. Already, mislabelling on cheap meat imports to the UK is a huge problem, with this meat being permitted to use the supposedly trusted Red Tractor label, which suggests it has been reared here in the UK.

We’ve seen cheap pork being imported, which has been made into sausages and labelled with the British flag. Is this ethical? No. The consumer is led to believe they are buying British produce being raised under the high standards we can trust, but this potential loophole means those who do not know what to look for, are eating meat that has not been raised to such high standards, or in fact, mislabelled meat, which could be something entirely different to what they think they are eating.

Only back in Easter 2021, New Zealand lamb was being wrapped with the British flag, and when we did a price check British lamb was in fact cheaper than New Zealand lamb. So, the value was not even in benefitting from a lower price – why are we letting this happen?

Love Local Trust Local was founded to help raise awareness and educate the public on how food labelling really works, and help the consumer know who to trust. With these sorts of trade agreements, this is providing plenty of space to truly muddy the waters and make this a far greater challenge.

As a country, it is terrifying to think that we only have around 6 months of food before we run out completely. Importing is not the answer – ramping up our UK farmers output is a more sustainable approach. If Covid has taught us anything, surely, it is that we need to value our local produce far more. Over the last year and a half we have seen a huge increase on reliance on local farm shops, butcheries, and the like at the time where the consumer almost had no choice.

As we saw first-hand, heading into the big supermarkets to pick up your internationally mislabelled produce, was not as reliable as the public would have been led to believe. This was because international travel was halted, and borders put firmly in place to contain the virus. How would this have played out, had there been no UK-reared produce to buy?

Whilst people will always want to buy cheaper produce, which is a real need for some people when considering budgeting, it is important to understand that if we all do our bit to shop locally, those prices for outstanding local produce will be able to come down making it more accessible for all.

In contrast, if we continue to buy en masse from countries with shoddy standards, this challenge will always be insurmountable. In essence, if we do not support our British farmers, there will be no local produce. This trade agreement means that hundreds of British farmers are destined to have their livelihood cut or destroyed, especially the smaller farmers, as they simply cannot compete.

With the Australian trade deal looming, and the potential US trade deal in our sights, meat traceability will become impossible, and that is something that the UK has been extremely thorough about, to protect our high standards.

Rawston Farm Butchery was established in 2012, at the time when the horse meat scandal was underway; horse meat was being wrapped in beef to disguise it, because it was full of painkillers, and this contaminated meat was therefore allowed to be filtered into our food chain here in the UK. These are the kinds of issues we can expect to see increase and take hold with these trade agreements coming into play.

As a farmer’s daughter and a farmer’s wife, I cannot emphasise enough, that the British farmers need to be protected from the abuse of the food industry. Farmers are busy people and are essential to our very existence. Farmers do not have time for confrontation – they are passionate about looking after their animals and growing their crops, and their time is fully occupied with just that. This is why Love Local Trust Local exists – to truly fly the flag for our local farmers, growers and producers, and help protect their livelihoods, which in turn, protects our society as a whole.

To coin a bumper sticker phrase, you will have likely seen; “No Farmers, No Food, No Future.” Sadly, never has a truer phrase been stated. People are always going to want cheap food I understand that. But I’d like to feel they want the British farmer to survive as well, given how integral this is to our very being.

To learn more about food labelling, to support local, and to get behind our farmers, growers and producers, head over to Love Local Trust Local.

Barbara Cossins, Founder of Love Local Trust Local, The Langton Arms & Rawston Farm Butchery

UK-Australia trade deal: What are the arguments for and against? – BBC News

Bovine TB at Westleaze

Editorial team

8 June 2021

Last month we had the dreaded news that our herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle had gone down with Bovine Tuberculosis. This was the first time that any of our cattle had contracted the disease in the ten years that they have been grazing the Beaminster Downs.

The positive reactor, which was discovered through our annual herd test has large ramifications; infected cattle are to be slaughtered and we are now unable to move any cattle off our farm till they all test negative twice after 60 and 120 days.

Due to the high cases of the disease in Dorset, we have to test our cattle yearly for signs of the disease, as opposed to every four years in low-risk areas. Otherwise, we would only test the animals that are due to move off the farm within the next 60 days.

Once a risk to human health in the UK, Tuberculosis today, however, causes stress and emotional heartache as farmers have their livelihoods slaughtered due to the disease.

TB testing in cattle began in England in 1935, as milk drunk from an infected dairy cow would transmit the disease. As with today, infected cattle would be slaughtered to stop the spread of the disease, which nearly led to the disease’s eradication in the 1970s.

Unfortunately, however, it was soon discovered that badgers and deer were carrying and continuing to spread the disease across the country. Last year, in England alone, over 27,000 cattle were slaughtered due to the disease.

The solution?

Realistically, there isn’t one solution. And it’s a bit of a hot topic to bring up! The Government have had a three-pronged approach to be TB free by 2038; testing, culling and vaccinations.

Many areas across England have been actively culling the badger population and it was announced in February that this was to be continued in Dorset, Somerset and Devon.

Patch the Dog keeping an eye on the herd

DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) has set a five-year plan to have an effective vaccine for cattle. Currently, there is one, however, it has an effectiveness of around 60% and when tested a vaccinated cow will automatically test positive for the disease.

Badgers can be vaccinated, but only by injections, so they must be caught in a cage and treated. This makes the process extremely costly; a five-year vaccination programme for badgers in Pembrokeshire worked out at £684 per badger.

Last year saw a 10% reduction in Bovine Tuberculosis slaughters in England – but it’s not enough. All of our cattle are to have blood tests in the next month to definitively see the toll of how many more will be killed.

Any animals that are slaughtered are compensated for by the Government, but the real cost is the mental effect on the farmer.

Despite what many people may think, we love our animals. We breed them, raise them and spend every day of our lives with them. We give up family time to spend time in the pouring rain with the boys and girls out in the fields.

it’s a case of having one of your own slaughtered, and farmers will do anything to stop that.

By: Andrew Livingston

Voice of the Farmer | June 2021

Editorial team

8 June 2021

I think after last months article where I mentioned that during the month of April, we had not received any measurable rainfall and that perhaps farmers and growers could do with some rain, during May we have virtually have had rain everyday. So far the totals amount to 150mm or 6 inches. This has led to the rapid growth of our grass and crops which has meant that the silage making process of providing winter feed for cattle has been severely delayed. At least when the weather does improve we shall have a good crop although may be lacking in quality.

Much of the farming politics has been involved with the trade talks with Australia. The result of the Brexit Deal has led to the United Kingdom being able to negotiate trade deals with countries outside the EU. The trade deal being agreed with Australia may be a bad deal for the farmers. With a tariff free deal being on the table this could mean food being imported produced at lower standards to what is expected in this country. This would put the UK producer at a disadvantage and unable to compete on price.

Let’s hope there will be better labelling in place soon so that consumers have accurate information of how and where the food was produced and hopefully will support local producers where possible.

With the weather now improving we have been able to get on with our silage making providing feed for our cattle next winter . Always an exciting time of year bringing in the first harvest of grass especially when you are relying on various bits of machinery not to break down !

The photos are of silage making at Rawston in the 1960,s and this year.

By: James Cossins

Life as a farm vet

Editorial team

8 June 2021

Here at Damory Veterinary Clinic in Blandford we have six full-time dedicated farm vets, alongside our small animal & equine teams. The majority of our work involves looking after dairy cattle, but we also see plenty of beef herds and sheep flocks; along with smallholders owning a variety of species including goats, poultry and alpacas.

Our days can be extremely varied, with a mix of pre-planned and emergency visits. For example I could be ultrasound scanning cows to see if they are pregnant, TB testing, dealing with emergencies such as difficult births, treating poorly animals, operating on a cow with a displaced stomach – the list is endless. Not knowing what you might do each day (or night!) is one of the most exciting aspects of our job.

Some parts of farm veterinary work are very seasonal, with Spring being notoriously busy. However there are some moments that make it all worth it: such as treating a severely dehydrated calf with a fluid drip, watching them go from listless to bouncing around the pen in a matter of hours! Or ultrasound scanning a cow and seeing that she is “in calf” (pregnant), after you nursed her back to health from severe illness a few months earlier. Calvings and lambings, including C-sections, are also immensely satisfying – the feeling of bringing new life into the world never gets old!

As well as visiting farms, there is also technical office-based work looking at farms’ data to keep us busy. We have several software programmes enabling us to analyse data and advise farms on how they can improve their herds’ health most efficiently.

Personally my special interest is infectious disease control, so when I’m not out on visits you might find me analysing results or advising farmers on control plans, including vaccination, tailored to their individual farms. It is so rewarding to get to know our clients and their farms, working with them over time to improve herd health. I am also enrolled on a post-graduate qualification, the Certificate in Advanced Veterinary Practice. My colleagues have particular interests in areas such as fertility, dairy cow lameness, mastitis, youngstock and suckler herd management.

To see more about our services & what we get up to, find us on Facebook “Damory Farm Vets” or Instagram @damoryvetsdorset_farm

By: Laura Sage BVSc (Dist) MRCVS

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