Great News

Today is the second part of our TB Test, on monday the vet came to inject each bovine animal on the farm with 2 samples of TB.
They are injected in the side of the neck with small gun like devices, this means getting each group of animals out of the buildings and putting them in the crush one at a time, then injecting them and putting them back in the buildings.
For our 60 cow herd plus young stock it takes about 2 hours, they dont like it and we worry that they will show signs of TB when the vet comes back to check.
Today was come back and check day and HOORAY no TB, so now we have 12 months till the next test.

We never used to worry about TB here as in the 13 yrs we have been here we have always passed the test. We dont buy any cows in and though we have an active badger sett on the farm we assumed they must be TB free.
But last spring we FAILED the TB test or at least 2 cows did, as per ministry rules they were taken away, slaughtered, autopsied and samples taken for culture. We could not sell any animals so the bull calves had to stay. We were paid the standard compensation for the lost cows which didnt take any notice of our organic status and we were retested 60 days later.
We had another reactor then who was also taken and again we were retested in 60 days, fortunately that time we were clear and the neither the autopsy or tissue culture confirmed TB.

This week was our next 12 monthly test and we are so relieved to be officially TB free.

We dont know what caused last years problems, possibly the badgers who travel far and wide, but since they are protected we can do nothing about them, we dont buy cows at all so it remains a mystery.

We are off out tonight to see Mumford and Sons play in Manchester, I have heard them described as indie folk or folk rock, I never really understand some music classification.
I bought the tickets months ago after hearing an ad for their CD and buying a download of it.

I have solved the logistical nightmare of three children,brownies, guides and a babysitter with very helpful friends, all we need now is no agricultural disasters and we are set.