Saturday, March 30, 2024

BLOG: Farmers won’t be cowed by M bovis

Neal Wallace
Lost in the Mycoplasma bovis debate over the degree of compliance with animal traceability and what farmers have or have not been told by the Ministry for Primary Industries has been the ability of farmers to adjust to meet the challenges of this game-changing disease.
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The M bovis outbreak has certainly raised a number of valid questions and issues that need answers. But. as we reveal this week, farmers faced with this adversity have once again shown their resilience and ability to find workable solutions.

The disease’s spread and the onset of winter certainly provided an incentive for a rapid response and in true farmer fashion that is exactly what they have done.

Biosecurity measures have been introduced by graziers to ensure cattle from multiple farms do not arrive on the same day, allowing time for the cleaning of trucks and stock receiving areas.

Grazing patterns have been adjusted and double fencing introduced to separate herds.

Some farmers have already eyed longer-term solutions, looking at how they can operate a closed herd, which could include buying a runoff block.

Another issue has been the need for dairy farmers contracted to breed Wagyu calves to hold on to them longer so collection trucks can be cleaned between farm visits.

Likewise, MPI is suggesting that most rural of school institutions, calf day, be canned to prevent the interaction of calves.

These are a small sample of a likely plethora of issues that will evolve from the outbreak of this disease and which will require creative and innovative solutions.

Farmers have been fortunate until now to have had few restrictions on the movement and management of cattle but the arrival of M bovis means that will no longer be the case, regardless whether the disease is eradicated.

There will likely be more tracking of stock movements, increased biosecurity measures, both nationally and by individual farmers, and less trust in general.

But, as farmers have consistently demonstrated, they are adaptable, innovative and will survive.

Neal Wallace

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