M bovis and the eradication programme have taken a massive toll on many farmers. In the past three years Farmers Weekly has covered a number of distraught farmers who’ve seen their herds carted off to slaughter. Others then waited far too long for the promised compensation.
Many in rural communties wondered if the effort to eradicate was worth the pain. They argued the production losses the disease would cause if it bedded in here didn’t outweigh the cost of eradication. Studies are still under way to quantify whether that’s the case. Looking to a long horizon, though, it seems like the right decision. M bovis causes mastitis, abortions and other nasty things. For a nation that’s looking to leverage its commitment to animal welfare in an effort to drive up the value of the food it produces being bovis-free is always going to be preferable. Even some of the worst-affected farmers, such as Frank Peters who is quoted in this edition, can see that.
To live with M bovis would have been to tell the world we’re okay with a percentage of our animals getting sick, being uncomfortable and maybe dying. We’d be saying that’s just a cost of our food production system. Increasingly, consumers aren’t buying that story. Sure, there are other areas of the system that need work as well. Live exports and bobby calves are a couple that spring to mind. Our industry needs to show it’s committed to continual improvement when it comes to welfare and sustainability. Our record on these issues is already the envy of the rest of the farming world. But that’s no reason to rest on our laurels.
Bryan Gibson
