Newsletter April 2003

MEMBERSHIP
The final date to register your membership was 31 March 2003 if you wanted to qualify for Council funding. Orkney Islands Council requested a support rate of 80% to qualify for financial assistance for our BVD eradication programme -we have achieved 95%.

New members are still welcome, but will not be entitled to the financial assistance offered. For those members who started their testing programme after our launch in February 2001, many have already reached accredited status.

FARMERS GUARDIAN
The Farmer's Guardian newspaper will feature a report about OLA within the next few weeks.

Features reporter Liz Faulkington travelled up to Orkney from Huddersfield and spent a few days here finding out about our BVD eradication programme. She visited OLA members Duncan Gaudie of Craebreck Farm in Holm and John Willie Stanger of South Scatter in Sandwick to find out how BVD had affected them in the past and the importance of preventing it from happening again now that both of their farms are clear.

She was very impressed with Orkney and the positive attitude of the farmers here.

We look forward to her report and hope that it generates some interest and maybe even some more buyers for Orkney cattle!

ACCREDITATION
After you have had TWO annual clear BVD screen tests from your last TWO batches of calves, you may be eligible for BVD accreditation.

Our rules are that you must prevent infection by VACCINATING your BREEDING STOCK, and/or your farm boundary must be at least 3 meters away from neighbouring cattle.

Our vaccination policy is optional if you have the required boundary, or if all your neighbours are the same status as yourself. You must be honest when assessing your farm for possible risk of infection, and if you have any doubts at all about your boundary - VACCINATE.

We have found that some members ignored our rules and did not vaccinate when they should have, and now have BVD in their herd.

Our rules are very important - if you follow them correctly you will prevent infection.

Vaccination should be carried out BEFORE your cows go to the bull. The importance of this is that infection of BVD must be prevented when your cows are in calf.

If a clear (white) in-calf cow comes into contact with an infected (red) animal, the cow will become immune (green), but the foetus in her womb will become infected (red). This calf could then be bom the following spring for example, and infect your entire herd.

If you vaccinate your cows, the foetus will be protected, and will be bom clear (white).

If you had a whole herd test carried out, you do not need to vaccinate the animals which have had contact with the disease, and are now naturally immune (the "green" animals), but you must vaccinate any that were clear (white).

Remember that a "green" cow can produce a "red" calf, unless she was tested as being "green" BEFORE going to the bull.

GRAZING LETS
It will soon be time for some of you to source extra grazing.

We advise you to find out the status of any neighbouring cattle, so that you are aware of any potential infection.

As we stated earlier, pregnant animals are the highest risk, so it is best if you can keep your breeding stock away from any animals of unknown status. Even if the cows have been vaccinated, their calves at foot may come into contact with the virus and turn "green". This will then show up on their screen test next Spring, giving a positive result.

It is less important for store animals, as the worst that could happen to them is that they could turn from clear (white) to having been in contact (green).

We suggest that if you have to send animals to grazing put your store animals rather than your breeding stock.

The good news is that with 95% membership, the risks involved are getting less, but do not become complacent.

RED ANIMAL MANAGEMENT
If you had a whole herd test carried out, you may have discovered that you had a "red" animal in the herd - and in some unfortunate cases more than one.

They are not always the poorest animal in the herd - sometimes they can appear perfectly healthy.

If you had a red animal in the herd, you need to decide what to do with it or them.

The first step is to isolate it from your herd and other people's cattle. You may send it for slaughter, but it must not go to a market where it can be sold on to someone else.

If it is a cow or bull you should send it to the cull, as it will breed more infected animals.

If it is under 30 months old it can be slaughtered. Some will fatten, others will not.

Most members decide to send them to slaughter as soon as their results are known, as there is the risk of them dying plus the hassle of keeping them isolated.

We are often asked about compensation for these animals from members worried about their results. If you have BVD in your herd, getting rid of these animals IS compensation.

BUYING IN ANIMALS
If you are planning to buy animals this spring for putting to grass, make sure your purchases are of a known status, and if they are not you should have them tested.

We are aware that store cattle are being brought into the county from south. If you are buying these you must keep them away from your herd until you test them.

If you are using an agent to make purchases for you, make sure they know what your requirements are.

OLA SALES
We have included sales lists of the two sales we are holding within the next fortnight.

Our first sale on Thursday this week (17 April 2003) is for in-calf heifers, heifers with calves at foot and breeding cows and bulls.

The next sale is on the following week (Thursday 24 April 2003) and is for bulling heifers and grazing cattle.

All animals forward are of a known status and many are from accredited farms.

We will arrange sales whenever demand dictates, so if you have any stock for sale that you want to market through OLA, get in touch with Karen.

OLA BULL BANK
You may have noticed that we have introduced a new service.

If you have a bull for sale or hire that has been tested, let Karen know about it and we can advertise him in the "OLA BULL BANK".

This is handy for members who need to source a bull with BVD health status. If we have a list of animals available it may prove very useful -especially if a member should need a replacement in a hurry.