Farmer Shares His Knowledge And Wins A Quad Bike
On Monday 2nd November Mr Gwynfor Evans was presented with a brand new Suzuki KingQuad 450 Utility ATV by Nick Burford, Livestock Manager at Janssen Animal Health. Mr Evans won his prize after being picked out of the hat from 900 entries, after completing a survey sharing his knowledge and experiences of coccidiosis, a parasitic disease that affects thousands of sheep and cattle each year.
Mr Evans picked up his entry form from agrimerchants Wynnstay Farmers in Oswestry. Gwynfors first reaction on receiving a telephone call informing him that he had won a brand new quad bike, was to think it was a prank. I was sure it was a friend calling to wind me up, he said later. After making a few calls to check his facts he was delighted and shocked to learn that he had actually won the prize.
Mr Evans farms both sheep and cattle in a stunning setting at Tyn Ygarreg which means house in the rock – in Oswestry and is busy with hill sheep currently being moved down to lowland grazing, so the quad bike is likely to be put into action straight away.
The Janssen Animal Health Coccidiosis Survey is now in its second year and one of the biggest animal health surveys of this kind in the UK. Mr Evans and the other 900 farmers who took part, will add considerably to the understanding of how this disease is experienced on real farms, right now. The full results of the survey Mr Evans took part in will be released early in 2010 but preliminary results suggest that stress factors continue to play a big part in development of this disease. In lambs, 59% of farmers felt that bad weather was the main trigger this year, with most becoming ill from 4-8 weeks of age. Calves were mainly affected at around 12 weeks with bad weather (30%), castration (13%) and weaning (14%) being the main triggers.
With three sons in the house Mr Evans is likely to face fierce competition before he is able to use the quad bike on the farm. Mrs Evans says she also plans to have a ride on it too!