foot and mouth

[Steve Burke]

Unfortunately as Nick & Cory suggested the disease has probably already spread. Peggy, bless her, didn't realise this and was wondering why I phoned Terry my head bailiff at almost 10pm!

 

Financially I shouldn't be affected at Wingham unless the outbreak goes on for a very long time. However last time I had to close the whole site down.

 

This time we've already masses of extra work to do because of flooding. I'd already spoken to a senior water engineer at the EA today who confirmed my fears that the water table could rise much higher when the autumn rains arrive. This would just make the situation worse than it is now. And if the site is closed down.....

 

However, as I posted earlier, others will be far worse hit than I will.

 

There's a chance that the incident will be isolated, but I certainly wouldn't bet on it.

 

If it isn't, let's hope the lessons from 2001 have been learnt as we don't want a repeat of that fiasco!

[nick]

Steve - not directly related to F&M, but if there is anything at Wingham that can be helped purely through manpower you make sure you let me know.

 

Money I can rarely help with, labour I always can.

[chesters1]

i know theres some pedigree herds near guildford ,half the problem is theres few cattle markets anymore so cattle have to travel further ,any sick ones transfer it far further than if it were a local market.

i bet the geezer with his two pet cows is crapping himself behind us ,he treats them like pets ,i will miss feeding them bread over the fence if it gets this far

Edited August 3, 2007 by chesters1

[corydoras]

Hey cory, maybe now we should sacrifice some virgins...

Or a couple of Teuchters

[Steve Burke]

Steve - not directly related to F&M, but if there is anything at Wingham that can be helped purely through manpower you make sure you let me know.

 

Money I can rarely help with, labour I always can.

 

That's extremely kind of you, Nick! Many thanks indeed for the offer. I'll certainly shout if it gets really serious but hopefully we'll manage.

[chesters1]

we were in the camper in 2001 travelling the south ,cornwall was closed (well the NT parts anyway which is a great deal of cornwall) and devon was just a huge barbeque we never even stopped there but the scenes of huge pyres at night could be seen from dorset ,not the best year for travelling.

even all the footpaths in surrey were closed for months after the all clear ,nothing to do with F&M just surrey CC saving money instead of keeping them clear and using it as an excuse

Edited August 3, 2007 by chesters1

[nick]

Steve, there are very few (if any) fisheries / nature reserves in the south of england like wingham.

 

I would consider anything I could do to assist you there time well spent.

 

I keep thiking of putting myself down on your waitng list for the coarse lake simply because it is such a unique habitat. The fact that it is now a 1500 mile round trip is pretty immaterial.

 

Hope you don't have any negative impact through this F&M outbreak.

[Errrm]

I just read this on the BBC :-(

 

When I was at university I wrote a computer simulation for the spread of a foot and mouth epidemic and from what I learnt the main problem will be the last time cattle from the farm went to market... I think foot and mouth has only been attributed to spreading a maximum of 70km due to air transmission ( with wind conditions etc helping it, and this still being unlikely ) but transportations from this farm and surrounding farms will cause the biggest problems. Apparently a 3km protection zone has been put up.... I think this should be larger but hopefully it will be enough.

 

Errrm

[chesters1]

trouble is there is no cattle market in guildford anymore (not sure the abbatoir is there either anymore) so local animals that used to go to it have to go to the next nearest wherever that is.

were in the 10k zone .i hope it isnt the flexford highland coo's

Edited August 3, 2007 by chesters1

[Colin Brett]

There's also almost certainly going to be import bans imposed by many foreign countries on UK meat that could be the final straw for farmers.

 

Any bets who will be first with a ban??

 

My money is on the French.

 

Colin