Farmers were reminded of impending changes to rules on Bovine TB pre-movement testing of cattle moving to and from premises within Sole Occupancy Authorities (SOAs) which will come into effect after 30 September 2014, at a recent Glamorgan NFU Cymru meeting, held at Porthcawl.
Commenting on the changes, Glamorgan NFU Cymru County Chairman Abi Reader said, “I am extremely concerned about the potential implications of these changes to bovine TB policy for farmers who manage movements of cattle between parcels of land which are under their management and control.”
From 1 October cattle moving between premises within a SOA will need to have had a negative TB pre-movement test before they can be moved. However, following NFU Cymru lobbying, cattle keepers who already possess a SOA are now able to apply for an Interim Land Association Management (ILAM) agreement. An ILAM agreement will allow cattle to be moved between premises within the ILAM without needing to have had a TB pre-movement test.
A number of criteria will however apply to the granting of an ILAM, the main one being that the boundary of land in the destination premises must be within 10 miles of the boundary of the main farm premises.
To apply for an ILAM farmers need to contact their own private vet to discuss their individual circumstances and to obtain an application form which will need to be submitted to AHVLA before 30 September.
Abi Reader concluded, “I’m particularly concerned for those farmers who keep cattle on rented summer grazing land where there may be a lack of suitable and safe cattle handling facilities to carry out TB tests. For some farmers in this situation it may be prudent to return cattle to the main farm holding before the end of September in order to avoid the new requirements to pre-movement test which will now come into effect from 1 October.
"However, I also appreciate that this may not be a suitable solution in all cases and would urge the Welsh Government to take a pragmatic and common sense approach to requests from farmers to post movement test cattle that are returned from summer grazing after 1 October and placed in suitable isolation facilities on farm. This would present a practical solution which would significantly reduce the health and safety hazards of testing cattle in unsuitable or unsafe locations.”
