Yesterday when I got up I had no intention of going to church, it just happened. After I dropped my son to school I had to go to the dentist, I parked in the churchyard because it's free, it's away from the prying eyes of traffic wardens, yes you guessed it the tax disc is still not up to date! I was able to park in shade, as it was a bright sunny morning I wanted to park in shade because my dog was in the jeep.
I walked to the dental practice, I had a 9am appointment, got in fairly quickly as mine was the first job of the day. I had a few fillings to get so decided to do two side beside on the top left, but this isn't about the dentist.
After leaving the dentist I walked back to the church, at the gate I met Bart, a Polish guy who used to work for me, I asked how he was, the family etc. we discussed mortgages still a hot topic in Ireland. Then I asked him was there Mass on or what, he said a member of the Polish community had died, his funeral was on that morning, I'd heard about the crash on the news the previous Friday, the road was closed. It happened on a road I drive on 4 or 5 times a week. It was a motorbike, no one else involved. Bart told me that his friend Lucas hit a badger, came off the bike and broke his neck. His wife of 7 months was about a mile behind him when it happened, it was almost dark and she rode on home, passing him by, never saw him. When she got home there was no sign of him, so she got in the car and drove back to find cop cars, ambulances, fire brigades etc. Lucas was only 33. He had been born behind the iron curtin and died on a road near my local town in a freak accident with a black and white badger. Bart said something like it's destiny, there's nothing you can do, yeah, when your time is up it's up I replied. I said I better go as I wanted to get out of the churchyard before the funeral arrived.
So I went to the jeep and let the dog out for a piss. It was something Bart had said, DESTINY. I decided to go to the funeral. I walked around to the other end of the church and in the main door. I came in at the back of the church and chose an empty pew 4 or 5 rows up, made a half assed attempt at a genuflection, I'm not a catholic, sat down and said a silent prayer.
It was still a few minutes to go, most of the mourners waited outside. The pew I had chosen was opposite a wide side door. Two priests in white stoles went to the door and opened it, letting in a draught and the bright spring sunshine. It was the door that Lucas would enter. When I went into the church there were 2 maybe 3 bikes in the churchyard. As I watched the two priests looking out the door more bikes started to arrive. One of the bikers, wearing a red bandanna asked the priests for permission to park the bikes in two lines either side of the door, the priests nodded. The bikers lined up, I wished I had a camera as the image was beautifully framed in the doorway, I knew I was witnessing something very special, the black leather of the bikers contrasting with the white vestments of the priests, and the black hearse contrasting with the sunshine on a beautiful sunny Spring day. Not a day for a camera I thought, better to cherish the memory instead, and try to describe it in words.
The undertaker awkwardly placed his little fold up trolley in the porch, then a few moments later removed it, it would not be needed. These guys were going to do a proper job for Lucas. The bikes shone in the sunshine as they ticked over. As the coffin bearers shouldered Lucas at the back of the hearse the biker with the red bandanna spun his hand quickly. The roar of the bikes as they saluted a fallen comrade could be heard for miles. What I felt was an unbelievable thrill, I hadn't been on a bike since the year that Lucas was born, but I swear my right hand twisted in the motion to open the throttle fully wide, the words of the song 'We're on the highway to Hell' blazed through my brain as Lucas entered the darkness of the church. During the ceremony which was mostly conducted in Polish I learnt that Lucas was a really talented pastry chef who had recently been promoted to manager where he worked. The biker in the red bandanna spoke at length in Polish, I wished I knew what he said. It was a first for me, to see someone in a red bandanna, dressed in black leather speaking from a pulpit.
I don't know why I went to church yesterday, but today I'm glad I did, maybe it's because I have my own issues with badgers and TB, perhaps someone is trying to tell me that my badger problem isn't anywhere near as bad as the young Polish widow who yesterday buried her husband of 7 months,
Rest in Peace Lucas.
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
tb on the farm
I've been going through a tough few months on the farm lately. It all started last August when a cow sent for slaughter showed up with TB in a post mortem, then another one in September. So out of 6 cows sent for slaughter, 2 showed up with TB.
We needed to do a full herd test, I wanted to do it before the winter feeding started, but Dept of Ag rules wouldn't allow this until 60 days after the last reactor had been removed from the farm. We did a test in November and 18 cattle showed up with TB. I was a bit surprised, I thought maybe we'd have 5 or 6 reactors. I couldn't understand where it was coming from. We all know that TB can spread from wildlife to cattle, but there are no deer in this area, ok there is some badger activity, but none of the setts were active. I have never bought in female cattle, and the only males I bought in since our last TB episode in 2006 was 2 stock bulls, they passed the test in November.
So 18 cattle were valued by an independent valuer who had been given 'valuation guidelines' by the Dept. I agreed to the valuations and 18 cattle, mostly in calf cows, went for slaughter at a local meat plant. I went to see them being killed, but when I tried to ask questions about whether all the cows were in calf, or if any of them had lesions I was told 'Your local DVO will tell you anything you need to know' then I got told where to stand by an over-bearing Russian bitch. I watched as my next crop of calves disappeared down a chute.
I got a cheque for the cattle about 2 days later, it was about 1/3 the value put on them by the 'independent valuation'. The balance came from the Dept about a month later when all the necessary paperwork, including a tax clearance cert had been forwarded on to the local DVO.
So the wife thinks it's fucking brilliant, we'll have money for christmas, be able to pay a few bills, pay bank arrears etc. But what about next fucking christmas, and the one after that? I ask her......
Needless to say many rows ensued. Later we found out 13 out of the 18 cattle showed up with lesions. This was quite high, so the vet from the Dept. suggested that we really should do a blood test for TB at the next herd test. Ok, I said, in my ignorance, I wanted to get to the bottom of this. The vet went on to explain that the blood test is only about 85% perhaps 92% accurate, it does throw up a few false positives. I agreed to go ahead with the blood test on all animals over 12 months old at the next test.
Roll on February, we had to wait 60 days after the last reactor was removed from the herd. By this time a lot of the cows were heavy in calf. Our own vet did the skin test, and the Dept vet took blood samples from all the cows, stock bulls and heifers over 12 months, 79 I think in total for blood test. I remember it was snowing and our own vet got delayed that morning.
So 3 days later we had the results of the blood test, out of the 79 tested 24 had failed, including one of my stock bulls. I was sort of in a semi-automatic daze as we did the skin test. I remember the Dept. vet asking me 'Do you love this cow'? What he meant was she was borderline on the blood test, and her skin test was clear, she was probably a false positive on the blood test. I was going to say something smart like I love all my cows, but I bit my tongue and bravely/stupidly said something like, let her off (for slaughter). Remember I still wanted to eliminate this disease from my farm as quickly as possible. So the final tally that day, 36 more cattle gone. The worrying part was one weanling bull was gone too, this group of cattle were all clear in the previous test. So a week went by, I sorted out all the reactors from the rest of the herd. The 'independent' valuer came again. By this time cattle prices in the mart had risen considerably since the last test, but the valuations didn't reflect this, we eventually thrashed it out, I agreed to the valuations, yes you guessed it, I wanted to get to the end of this as quickly as possible. 3 weeks after the test 35 out of the 36 reactors went off to the same local meat plant. One cow didn't go because she was calving that morning. She went a week later. Needless to say I didn't go to the meat plant that day to see my future sliding down a chute. However I did go to another meat plant later that week with 3 bulls for slaughter. Strangely enough one of these showed up with lesions, which later showed up as being TB positive after being cultured. Now this bull passed a test in November, passed a test in February and yet still had TB bad enough to show up with lesions. I am not really looking forward to my next TB test in early May.
So calving of my remaining 17 cows continues, slowly. I have bought another Aberdeen angus bull, there is still about 30 heifers that will be fit for service this year, all going well next year might be better. The Dept vet wants to do the ELIZA test at the next herd test, I think I have no option but to do it, after all I want to get to the bottom of this........
We needed to do a full herd test, I wanted to do it before the winter feeding started, but Dept of Ag rules wouldn't allow this until 60 days after the last reactor had been removed from the farm. We did a test in November and 18 cattle showed up with TB. I was a bit surprised, I thought maybe we'd have 5 or 6 reactors. I couldn't understand where it was coming from. We all know that TB can spread from wildlife to cattle, but there are no deer in this area, ok there is some badger activity, but none of the setts were active. I have never bought in female cattle, and the only males I bought in since our last TB episode in 2006 was 2 stock bulls, they passed the test in November.
So 18 cattle were valued by an independent valuer who had been given 'valuation guidelines' by the Dept. I agreed to the valuations and 18 cattle, mostly in calf cows, went for slaughter at a local meat plant. I went to see them being killed, but when I tried to ask questions about whether all the cows were in calf, or if any of them had lesions I was told 'Your local DVO will tell you anything you need to know' then I got told where to stand by an over-bearing Russian bitch. I watched as my next crop of calves disappeared down a chute.
I got a cheque for the cattle about 2 days later, it was about 1/3 the value put on them by the 'independent valuation'. The balance came from the Dept about a month later when all the necessary paperwork, including a tax clearance cert had been forwarded on to the local DVO.
So the wife thinks it's fucking brilliant, we'll have money for christmas, be able to pay a few bills, pay bank arrears etc. But what about next fucking christmas, and the one after that? I ask her......
Needless to say many rows ensued. Later we found out 13 out of the 18 cattle showed up with lesions. This was quite high, so the vet from the Dept. suggested that we really should do a blood test for TB at the next herd test. Ok, I said, in my ignorance, I wanted to get to the bottom of this. The vet went on to explain that the blood test is only about 85% perhaps 92% accurate, it does throw up a few false positives. I agreed to go ahead with the blood test on all animals over 12 months old at the next test.
Roll on February, we had to wait 60 days after the last reactor was removed from the herd. By this time a lot of the cows were heavy in calf. Our own vet did the skin test, and the Dept vet took blood samples from all the cows, stock bulls and heifers over 12 months, 79 I think in total for blood test. I remember it was snowing and our own vet got delayed that morning.
So 3 days later we had the results of the blood test, out of the 79 tested 24 had failed, including one of my stock bulls. I was sort of in a semi-automatic daze as we did the skin test. I remember the Dept. vet asking me 'Do you love this cow'? What he meant was she was borderline on the blood test, and her skin test was clear, she was probably a false positive on the blood test. I was going to say something smart like I love all my cows, but I bit my tongue and bravely/stupidly said something like, let her off (for slaughter). Remember I still wanted to eliminate this disease from my farm as quickly as possible. So the final tally that day, 36 more cattle gone. The worrying part was one weanling bull was gone too, this group of cattle were all clear in the previous test. So a week went by, I sorted out all the reactors from the rest of the herd. The 'independent' valuer came again. By this time cattle prices in the mart had risen considerably since the last test, but the valuations didn't reflect this, we eventually thrashed it out, I agreed to the valuations, yes you guessed it, I wanted to get to the end of this as quickly as possible. 3 weeks after the test 35 out of the 36 reactors went off to the same local meat plant. One cow didn't go because she was calving that morning. She went a week later. Needless to say I didn't go to the meat plant that day to see my future sliding down a chute. However I did go to another meat plant later that week with 3 bulls for slaughter. Strangely enough one of these showed up with lesions, which later showed up as being TB positive after being cultured. Now this bull passed a test in November, passed a test in February and yet still had TB bad enough to show up with lesions. I am not really looking forward to my next TB test in early May.
So calving of my remaining 17 cows continues, slowly. I have bought another Aberdeen angus bull, there is still about 30 heifers that will be fit for service this year, all going well next year might be better. The Dept vet wants to do the ELIZA test at the next herd test, I think I have no option but to do it, after all I want to get to the bottom of this........
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