Month: August 2007

It is good news that the source of the foot and mouth outbreak seems to have been found. Of course no one is prepared to accept the blame, it is always not me. We will have to wait and see what damage has been done.

What is really unbelievable is that a Government Laboratory is responsible for the outbreak. It is all well and good for the Government to blame an outside company who manufactures inside the Government’s facility, for the leak. The responsibility for the security of the establishment can only lie with the Government. What we all need to be very concerned about is the security in other Government Laboratories such as Portadown, that is involved in Chemical and Biological warfare. Imagine the consequences if a leak occurred in one of those facilities. Who’s to say that the security of those facilities is any better.

It seem that the problem with the telescope is the computer in the observatory. I have spent nearly all day trying to get it going. This morning I did manage to get the Sun on the webcams, but only for a short time. When i tried to remotely control the telescope from the farm house the computer went down. It could be that I may be able to use a computer in the farm house if I am able to sort a piece of wiring out. I should know in the morning when I speak to the supplier of the telescope.

Woody was very unwell last night and I really did think that it was time to end her suffering. It was my intention to get the Veterinary out this morning. We checked on her until we went to bed and there was very little change. I even expected that she may have died in the night. We let Lady and the Foal out with the other Horses. A month ago she would wait by the gate calling for Woody if we had to keep her in, as she was unwell. Lady seems to be getting use to it, so when the time does come it will not be so hard on Lady losing Woody. They have been together now for about six year. When we went to see how Woody was this morning you would have thought that we had dreamed that she was unwell last night. She greeted us with a call when she saw us. All of the feed that she had not eaten last night was gone as was her hay. She ate this morning feed and seems to have been well all of today.

It seems that I am going to be stuck with the rest of the Sheep for a bit longer that I thought. The intention was to take the Portland Sheep to a special Rare Breeds Sale in our local Livestock Market next Saturday. The outbreak of foot and mouth disease has put a stop to that. I should have taken them to market when I sent the five Ewes and eighteen Lambs a couple of weeks back. I had already decided to try to keep the five friendly hand reared Texel Ewes, our holiday guests do like to see the Lambs. We had meant to fence of around the lakes last week, so that the Texel Ewes could graze around them. We will have to make it our first job next week. There is a lot of grass around the lakes that will keep them going for a while.

How widespread the foot and mouth breakout is we can only wait and see, but for sure it will not be isolated to the one farm that has been found to have it. Where does it come from. I remember that a case was made that it could be imported into this country from Africa and Asia by illegal imports of meat that is infected with the virus, carried through customs by airline passengers for their own use. I also remember that these illegal imports would be stopped. What ever turns out to be the cause it is going to cost everyone an awful lot of money. The huge compensation that was given for slaughtered animals in 2001 encouraged a few unscrupulous farmer to deliberately import the disease to their farms to get the compensation. The money handed out was scandalous. Livestock valuers in many cases were valuing livestock at triple their true value. Vast amounts of money was allowed to clean farm buildings. When I say vast, one payment was more than a farms was worth. Slaughterhouses were paid mega amounts. w I should reckon that a very high portion of the eight billion pounds that it cost on the last outbreak, was wasted. I think that the compensation was drastically lowered for any future out breaks.

Fortunately foot and mouth disease did not affect our farm. Although it came quite close, and we only had six Wild boar that would have been at risk. Now we only have twenty Sheep that would be affected, if the disease came to Denbury.

One thing that I kept on hearing on the television today is that it should not close the countryside down. Where is the logic in that. If this outbreak is widespread, to some degree it must. There is a nationwide ban on the movement of livestock, but the public should be allowed to use footpaths that go through farms. Some of the people may have yesterday walked a footpath that passes through a farm that has the disease, but has only been diagnosed today. On the last outbreak we were allowed to close a footpath weeks after the start of the virus. The same mistakes will be made again. Lets hope this outbreak can be contained.

For the past two days I have seen the Kingfisher dive off of the branch to catch a Fish. On one of the occasions it landed back on the branch with a fish in its beak. I tried to get a close up of it, unfortunately it was far to fast and was gone quicker than I could get a hand on the controller. At least the Kingfisher are making te branch a regular perching site for fishing.

Surely the Swallows who are on the nest at the top of the roof are nesting. If they are not they may be the fledglings still returning to their nest. I have never noticed that the fledglings return for so long after they have left the nest. If they are an adult pair, I don’t know if it is the same pair that were on the nest last time. It does seem to be very soon after their fledglings left the nest.

I am still looking for another species of Bird who may nest again this year. The warm weather may encourage one to have a late clutch. The usual Dove nest is being used again. I may try later this evening to move a camera onto it. I was hoping to set the Telescope up tonight as I may have a bit of spare time after I finished the Diary, but unfortunately it has got a bit overcast here this evening.

The contractor came over to see if we could start making the hay. There is one small field that is quite dry, that we could start on, but would you believe it, after being told only at the weekend that it was going to be dry for the whole week, showers are now forecast for tomorrow morning. The largest field that we cut for hay is in the valley. Where the water is still coming off of the hills, it is making a fairish part of the field by the stream, so wet that the water is above your shoes. Even in the winter it does no hold water, to the degree that it is at the moment. I will check the forecast tonight and in the morning. If it looks that we may get a spell of five or six days of it being dry, I will get it mowed in the morning except for the wet area. I will let the Horses graze the field after the hay is made, If we are lucky.