Is recent announcement by the NFSCo a case of special pleading?

They reckon that sheep farmers in particular are not informing them of fallen stock and so the numbers of dead sheep being collected is falling. They conclude that farmers are flouting the rules on burying dead sheep and that, "Europe will be looking at this."

Their 110 collector members are however 'on the button' as they pick up fallen stock with 48 hours in 99% of all cases.

The National Sheep Association CEO Peter Morris says however, "Compliance is generally good," but that the costs of taking away fallen sheep was high and that more options for sheep farmers should be available.

Is the fallen stock scheme a candidate for the axe under David Cameron?

How do they come to the conclusion that falling numbers passing through their hands is due to flouting of the rules?  Does it not have more to do with the national flock size falling overall?  Perhaps improved husbandry or disease control is leading to better survival rates?  Or ewes are producing less lambs?  Or farmers are finding other legal methods of disposal, such as via hunt kennels?  A combination of all of these factors (and maybe more) would be the most likely solution.  Special pleading indeed.

As NFSCo no longer receives any public cash, why should it be abolished by any government whim? 

As far as I am concerned it helps to keep costs down as it is easy to see who will collect in your area and who is cheapest.  We use a firm based in Knighton on Teme.  When the NFSCo first started they bid to collect in our area because they were already collecting cattle under the over 36 month rules.  Despite the extra distance involved, they cost considerably less than our 'local' collector based in Stratford upon Avon, and give very good service.  Without the extra business the NSFSCo probably brings them, I doubt they would service our area and there would be virtually no competition.

I can't remember off hand what our nearest hunt kennels (Croome & West Warks) charges, I'm sure it's probably a bit cheaper still, but as they don't collect I would have to add to that the cost of transporting the dead sheep there (£3?) and the time (1 hour) during the working day whereas our NFSCo collector knows where the dead sheep will be left and where the key to the gate is hidden, so I can be in the office earning a crust - when I'm not posting on here!

If something dies at say, 6pm on Friday night, and the farmer rings NFSCo first thing Monday and then they take 48 hours to collect you end up with one hell of a pong. For the number that die here I saddle up the Land Rover and dump them on the knackers' yard myself. Less expensive and I get valuable thinking time on the journey over!

Peter Wells:

Is the fallen stock scheme a candidate for the axe under David Cameron?

 I believe so.  It has never really worked, and burying on-farm the numbers of animals likely from any extensive livestock operation is by far the greenest and safest thing to do with them. The rules are simply wrong, and need changing.  Huge amounts of effort have gone into looking for BSE infective agents (prions if you must) in soil and groundwater, without finding them, and in any case BSE is absent in sheep and very rare in cattle now.  Intensive pig farms may have more fallen stock than it would be reasonable to bury on their holdings, but they can often justify an incinerator on-farm.   Silly rules like not allowing even a single sheep to be incinerated in an on-farm pig incinerator are overdue for culling, like the jobsworths that thought them up in the first place (though I understand that sheep are in fact quite difficult to burn, relative to pigs).

NFSCo serves a purpose, at no public cost, whilst other on-farm burial and other simple options are not available to many farmers.  If David Cameron were able to get the EU Commission to withdraw the Directive which banned our previous means of disposal, I guess he would be able to get them to withdraw the one which will make us spend our hard earned cash on EID for sheep as well. 

There are probably many others which we, and many other industries, could well do without also.  These shouldn't really present any problem either.  After all, if he were to succeed in the first task he would only need to walk across the channel to tackle the Brussels bureaucrats over the rest!

Jacobus:

NFSCo serves a purpose, at no public cost

True now, but not historically.  I'm a bit dubious about their value in fact, though they may suit some people:

We are smallholders, my wife is a vet, and so we don't have deaths on-farm more than once in 3 to 6 years if that, so the membership fee made the scheme uneconomic.

 In any case the charge made by our local hunt kennels was less than it would have been even with NFSCo membership, and I think this is true in very many places.

Large livestock units can justify their own incinerators, or a share of a mobile one.

 I'm sure there are farms where the NFSCo is the best option, but my gleaning of information suggests this is quite rare.

We do not subscribe to this Company, so pehaps they are counting our sheep as one's slipping through the net.

Fortunately our local knacker yard has given service second to none for more years than most of us can remember. we can drop off sheep 7 days a week with no problems, and get the piece of paper so loved by the clip board holders.

2658336:

I'm sure there are farms where the NFSCo is the best option, but my gleaning of information suggests this is quite rare.

Jacobus:

Latest published accounts of NFSCo show the turnover was nearly £17m for 2008, so perhaps not quite so rare as you imagine.

Possibly so.  I have been counting up, and estimate I must know over 20 other livestock farmers, and not one of them uses NFSCo, which may be a geographic effect or something different.  I also have little idea of how significant £17M is on a national scale, or indeed how effective that turnover is - perhaps it's very good.