For farmers inside Dumfries and Galloway’s Temporary Control Zone, day-to-day work continues. But livestock sales, breeding plans and rising costs are creating growing uncertainty.
For Ben Best, farm manager at Dalscone Farm near Dumfries, the arrival of bluetongue in south-west Scotland has not stopped the routine work of farming.
But beyond that routine, plans made months ago have been thrown into doubt.
“It’s a nightmare, a real spanner in the works. Day-to-day running on the farm doesn’t really change too much, but for the future plans over the next few weeks, that’s where it really affects things.”
Dalscone lies within the Temporary Control Zone established following the detection of bluetongue virus serotype 3, or BTV-3, in Dumfries and Galloway.
The farm runs a commercial sheep flock alongside pedigree Suffolks and Valais Blacknose sheep, Highland, Hereford and Dexter cattle, and Golden Guernsey, Boer and pygmy goats.
Movements of susceptible animals, embryos, ova and semen to or from premises in the zone are prohibited unless authorised by a Scottish Government licence. General licences permit specified movements, subject to their conditions.
Breeding plans disrupted
For Best, the timing is particularly difficult. Dalscone had spent much of the year preparing stock for autumn breeding sales.
Around 80 goats had been entered for sales at Lanark and Thainstone, while Carlisle was also part of the farm’s annual marketing plan.
“That’s gone now. We can’t take them up north.”
Best said breeding enterprises worked to fixed seasonal windows.
“With the goats, there’s a breeding calendar to work to. After about the middle of October, we’re not really going to be buying breeding stock or putting goats in with the males.
“If these restrictions are still in place by then, we could have all our goats stuck here, with no way of getting them away or bringing new breeding stock in.”
The situation is also making it harder to identify alternative buyers.
“At the market, you’ve got the buyers standing there, primed and ready to go. But where do you suddenly try and find buyers that are reasonably close by?”
More mouths to feed
Keeping animals for longer creates another challenge, particularly after a hot and dry summer that has limited grass growth.
“The goats especially, they can eat their heads off themselves. It’s already scarce at the minute, hardly any grass whatsoever, so then you’re starting to feed more fodder.
“You weren’t intending on feeding any of these sheep or goats that amount of fodder, and it’s just that compounding effect: you can’t move them on, more fodder, less grass, more expense.
“It always ends in that cycle of more expense, eating into the profits, making it less viable to actually farm.”
The financial impact is already being felt through livestock movements. Best recently bought a billy goat from Northampton, which required pre-movement testing before it could travel to Scotland.
“By the time I paid for the vet to come out, test him, the test to get sent away and the call-out charge, it was £273 for one test to get one billy goat over the border.
“That is just directly coming out of our pocket that we would not have budgeted for before.”
‘You’re powerless’
One of Best’s biggest frustrations is vaccine availability.
Dalscone had been on a waiting list for several weeks but had received no doses when Best spoke to The Scottish Farmer.
“We’ve got nothing. We’ve been on the waiting list for a few weeks now, and we’ve not even had one dose come through.”
Three BTV-3 vaccines are authorised for use in Great Britain. Defra and the Veterinary Medicines Directorate have urged farmers and vets to place orders early, while the VMD can facilitate imports through its Special Imports Scheme where suitable authorised vaccine is unavailable in Great Britain.
But Best said it was difficult for farmers to respond to advice to vaccinate when doses were unavailable.
“It’s the guidance: vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate. And you say, okay, that’s fine, I’ll follow the guidance – oh, there’s no vaccines.
“You’re powerless really.”
The potential consequences of an outbreak were also weighing on him. Best referred to reports of a small sheep keeper who, he said, lost 11 of 18 sheep following bluetongue infection.
“That puts the fear in you, doesn’t it? Even on a small size, half of the flock gone, you can’t really come back from that, I think.
“It could set you back 10 years.”
With breeding ewes now reaching more than £300 at some sales, Best said even relatively small losses could have a serious impact.
Best found out Dalscone was within the Temporary Control Zone through a text from the Animal and Plant Health Agency.
“We looked on and saw that we were kind of smack in the middle of it.”
He said the initial uncertainty over movement rules created immediate disruption to planned livestock movements. The concern is particularly acute for farms involved in breeding sales and cross-border trade.
“You feel like you’re detached from the rest of the country.”
Best said farmers needed a clearer indication of what they were working towards.
“Even if they gave us a provisional timeline of, ‘We think the restrictions could probably ease then’, at least you know what you’re working towards.”
For now, farm work continues inside the zone, but decisions on sales, breeding and investment are becoming increasingly difficult.
The immediate request from Best is simple: “Clarity.”
