BTB and milk prices leave farmers at a two-fold loss

A big dairy farming story of late is the decision by the Caffè Nero coffee bar chain to refuse to buy milk from dairy farms that find themselves in the badger cull areas.

The story has been the catapult for acres of copy to be written by columnists everywhere. That, in itself, is clear evidence of just how emotive the story is, how divisive an issue the cull can be and how wide the spectrum of views is in society.

The Caffè Nero decision was nothing to do with the rights and wrongs of a cull and everything to do with intimidation. Sure, commentators missed this point completely. They wrote sentence after sentence about the need for a cull, the right and wrongs of a cull and why some activists are quite content to see thousands of cattle die, but not one badger.

The people at the top of Caffè Nero are sure to have private views on all of this – everyone does – but that almost surely had nothing to do with their decision. Their decision was based on the threats of violence to their staff and customers, because, unfortunately, when it comes to animal rights, this sort of terrorism gets just about as nasty as it can get.

We only have to cast our minds back a few years to when the remains of an elderly woman were dug up from her grave in the protests about a farm that produced guinea pigs for research. I know of farmers who live in designated areas who were about their yards at night attending to a calving cow, for example, who were confronted by black-clad, balaclava-wearing activists who were confrontational and threatening – and who had absolutely no right to be about those yards anyway. It had the sort of invasive threat to it that comes after a burglary in your home.

What sort of country do we live in if the threat of violence is a factor in the control of bovine TB? All this was no doubt “kicked off” with the anti-austerity marches that took place in June. That was when Caffè Nero felt itself to be most threatened.

Austerity spectrum

Austerity is a relative concept. Most dairy farmers could be forgiven for thinking they are on the wrong end of the austerity spectrum. Austerity marches almost inevitably turn into riots, with property damaged, policemen assaulted, policewomen hit over the head with placards, all in the name of austerity and badgers.

I read, I’m sure, that Boris Johnson had two water cannons parked up somewhere, while he awaited permission to use them. Wouldn’t it have been splendid irony if he had filled them up with milk and used them? The malaise in the price of dairy products is down to too much milk, so there would have been a double win, win scenario. If the milk used had come specifically from badger cull areas, so much the better.

The other irony is a political one. In the run-up to the general election, Nicola Sturgeon had said she wanted to link the SNP with other anti-austerity parties to keep David Cameron out of Downing Street. I think the possibility she would succeed in doing that actually kept him in there. Just as rioting taking place in an anti-austerity march, all it will do is keep people voting Conservative.

What is so very difficult is the fact these “activists” are so entrenched in their views, it is impossible to have any sort of dialogue with them. They trawl life for issues they can expose. Today it will be badgers and austerity, tomorrow it will be something else. There is no reasoning to be had with the sort of people who will find pub signs like The Fighting Cocks offensive.

Enough is enough

All this serves to keep the bovine TB issue in the headlines. It leaves farmers bewildered and at a loss. It’s an issue that has been festering for so long now, most farmers have had enough.

If you asked them most would say removing protected status from badgers would do the job, it would do the job at no cost to the taxpayer. Once you had a balance back in the badger population, you could protect them again. If badger culling was going on everywhere, all milk would be the same, wouldn’t it?

Because I write here and elsewhere I get quite a lot of telephone calls from farmers who are affected by TB. The emotional and financial implications are awful; lots of callers are in tears.

An auctioneer told me he has a long list of clients who will cease milk production just as soon as they can sell their herds clear of TB. Some have had enough already and sent the whole herd for slaughter.

Those that wait for the all-clear are only doing so for financial reasons – the difference between the two scenarios is around £500 a cow. They need the extra £500 a cow to fill the black hole they have at the bank. As an industry, low prices and TB are grinding us down. Our budgets for this financial year show a loss – that means in 12 months’ time, after 12 months’ work, we will owe the bank more money than we do now.

Our 12-monthly TB test is due. If we fail, the consequences are too awful to contemplate.