Lots of different creatures like the Badger Sett and Badger removing old bedding
We are having the wettest winter on the farm that I can remember in the 30 years we have been here. The fields are sodden, walking on them they quickly turn to mud making it difficult to walk on and get the work done that we need to do in the winter. We waste our time every morning checking the BBC and the Met office forecasts for you can guarantee that an hour later it will be completely different. On Sunday it told us that it was going to be dry up to Thursday with showers Friday. It’s been the complete opposite.
The Badgers have not been eating a lot of the feed we leave out for them. They are definitely in the sett as the camera picks them up most nights taking bedding in and out for this year’s cubs that we are 99% sure are in the sett, and excavating new entrances and holes to the sett. The Deer show their selves most night eating the badger feed and we see the Fox now and then. We got an old badger camera working yesterday and laid another cable for a camera down the slope that we hope to get working in a week or so.
We received a letter from the Defra last week telling us that our Llama have to be tested for TB. We are not looking forward to it. All camalids, llama, alpaca, camels etc are very susceptible to the disease, so we are expecting the worse. Unfortunately it has to be done. More so as there is a dairy farmer next door whose fields are adjacent to ours. He accepts that badgers are not the only cause of bovine TB. He also didn’t join the badger cull, although. His herd has tested positive for TB on numerous occasions and his farm has been restricted on any movements. There are two farmers in our area who we know will kill and poison badgers, but most in our area know that bovine tb is spread by deer, sheep and other animals. The test on our llama is on Monday. They will have to be restrained, not an easy task with llama to be vaccinated with tuberculin. That the easy part. The hard part is between 10 and 30 days after when a blood sample will be taken and sent away for testing. If any test comes back positive the llama will have to be slaughtered. We have 10 llama that are all very special to us, but we are expecting most will test positive.
This link will give you some information, but it also proves without doubt that Defra, the NFU and Government are fully aware that many other animals carry and spread Bovine TB. http://www.tbhub.co.uk/non-bovines/