Alan Montgomery
Alan Montgomery
Alan Montgomery runs
a 300ha (750-acre) mixed
farm near Downpatrick, Co
Down, Northern Ireland.
As well as cereals and
potatoes, the farm supports
a 130-cow suckler herd, 800
breeding ewes and
1000 store lambs
OUR caseous lymphadenitis contact ram has had another clear clinical examination from a veterinary official.
One more check without mishap and restrictions on him and the rest of the flock will be lifted.
My investment in him will be wasted this season, as ewes and ewe lambs will be tupped before he comes out of isolation. It is a small price to pay, but what remains to be discovered is how, in this age of movement permits, it took six weeks to trace him to our farm.
The Institute of Animal Healths admission that they may have tested cattle brains mistakenly during their work on BSE in the national sheep flock proves what most of us have suspected for some time. They are academically brilliant but bereft of common sense.
All-important consumer confidence has taken another knock with the uncertainty. Fortunately, lamb prices have risen this week in the wake of another government farce.
Still on the subject of sheep brains, the first phase of the national scrapie plan to eliminate scrapie from the national flock is under way. By using genotyping, terminal sire breeders will be able to produce rams that are RR, resistant to scrapie; R1, totally resistant; or R2, predominantly resistant. Hopefully, this work will be flagged up and used as a disease-free marketing tool.
With ground conditions worsening, steers and heifers were housed on Oct 19, just a few days earlier than average. Silage and straw stocks are plentiful, although with current straw prices I would prefer to be selling. Calves, with their protective pneumonia vaccination administered, will remain on cows a little longer.
Farming has been interfering with my social life. Winter cereal to be drilled and ewes and rams to be batched for mating left me reluctantly declining a hospitality ticket for the Ireland vs England rugby match in Dublin. With the benefit of hindsight it was probably a good move as it would have been well into Monday before any productive work could have taken place. *
With ground conditions worsening, steers and heifers have been housed on Alan Montgomerys farm.