By Charles Bourns
What a summer we have all had! The weather has been cruel, to say the least. It has also shown up some shortcomings, that, if this weather is the new normal, we have to put right.
I live in the West Country and this summer has really shown up the lack of rendering plants in this area. On top of our problems, sheep and cattle are suffering from bluetongue – a notifiable disease and a TB reactor. It is all adding up to a great deal of material to render. One collector in this area I know is picking up six loads a week at the moment. Normally it is one. Let’s hope the bluetongue outbreak is a one-year event as there is a vaccine now being deployed.
Thanks to the foresight of a group of farmers in the egg industry many years ago, who established the Lion mark on eggs and, through the assurance scheme, demonstrated to the FSA and Defra that their eggs were safe from Salmonella, the UK egg industry is now in a position to defend home-produced eggs against cheaper imports.
With imported eggs now implicated in the introduction of Salmonella poisoning into the country, why does the foodservice industry continue to take this risk and potentially shoot itself in the foot for the sake of a few pounds of extra profit?
I appreciate that the foodservice industry is under huge pressure from rising costs, but is saving a small amount on eggs really worth it in the long run? I am sure it is not.
I have attended meetings on heat stress and learnt one particularly interesting lesson: if you install a misting system, you need to make sure you have sufficient air movement to remove the additional moisture.
One farmer actually lost birds after increasing the humidity too much because the ventilation system could not remove the excess water quickly enough. It was something I had not really considered before, but it highlights the importance of checking your ventilation capacity before installing a misting system.
Apparently, farmers can also arrange a visit from a specialist through the Defra-funded planned veterinary visits under the biosecurity programme, which could be a useful opportunity to assess ventilation and heat-stress risks.
We have tunnel ventilation, so misting would probably be of limited benefit to us. I’m also not sure how much we have simply been lucky with the age of our birds when it comes to coping with the heat.
I was given a worrying piece of information, which I understand Red Tractor is looking at more closely. The EU is reportedly banning imports of chicken and beef from Brazil from the middle of the month because the Brazilians cannot demonstrate how much antibiotics they are using in their production systems. Some might say it is about time, but I cannot see the UK Government doing the same. Does that mean we risk becoming a dumping ground for some of this product?
Even if you’re not political, I would have thought it might be worth having a conversation with your local MP about this and asking what safeguards are in place to prevent lower-standard imports entering the UK.
On a more positive note, we have finally had some rain today – on the first day of a hosepipe ban imposed by Bristol Water! The water companies have said the West Country is around 30% below the capacity they need to meet demand during the summer.