NFU meets members to discuss badger cull plans
NFU members are to be given the opportunity to air their views on the proposed badger cull as a consultation on the issue gets underway.
NFU President Peter Kendall will meet members over the next 12 weeks to discuss the details of the consultation and to hear what farmers have to say.
Earlier this month Defra Minister Jim Paice announced a three-month consultation on a series of proposals to help control bovine TB in cattle. The consultation document provides a range of policy options which would permit the control, under licence, of badgers in areas with high and persistent levels of TB, such as the West Country and the West Midlands.
Mr Kendall said: We really do encourage every farmer to attend these meetings, if they can, to understand in more detail what the proposals might mean for them.
I understand there will be individuals and groups who will be opposed to these proposals but I firmly believe that it is in everyones interest that we seek to control the spread of bTB. Our common purpose is to have healthy cattle and healthy badgers.
Many farmers live with the reality of bTB day in day out. The disease brings untold misery, stress and worry and has an enormous emotional impact on farming families as they work to keep up with this terrible cycle of infection and re-infection. Theres also the huge impact this disease has on farming businesses through movement restrictions and the needless slaughter of cattle bTB acts like a break on competitiveness and destroys years of hard work.
Meetings are scheduled to take place on:
- September 28, 8.30pm, Puxton Park, Somerset
- September 29, 10am, Beef Expo Exeter
- September 29, 3pm, Cirencester Market
- October 7, 7.30pm, Salwey Arms, Woofferton, Ludlow
- October 8, 12pm, Three Counties Showground, Malvern
- October 14, 12pm, East Midlands, venue TBC
- November 25, 11am, Truro Market
- November 25, Exeter, details TBC
- November 25, Dorset Annual Open Meeting, details TBC
- November 26, 10.30am, Devon Annual Meeting, Tiverton
Bovine TB led to the slaughter of just under 40,000 cattle in 2008, up from just 6,000 cattle in 1998.
A vaccine for badgers is five years away, vaccination for cattle is at least 10 years away and it is currently illegal to vaccinate cattle for bTB.
Taxpayers spent 84m on TB in Great Britain last year.
There is a major background of infection of TB in the countryside and it is starting to spread to other species including domesticated animals.