4 Jun 2018
Industry challenges: non-stun slaughter, retention and snow
Emily Simcock reflects on a difficult spring, and why she's now looking forward to a holiday after the five-month lambing season.

Grass and blue skies welcome.
Spring has definitely arrived as I write this and it really has felt a long time coming for us, and the farming community.
Rainfall levels in January and February for Devon were extremely high. March and April brought huge dumps of snow when usually lambing and calving would be well underway outdoors. April temperatures then stayed persistently low, delaying turnout, and exacerbating the shortages of straw and forage.
The prolonged freezing conditions contributed to health challenges, particularly energy intakes in ewes close to lambing. Ongoing poor weather resulted in overstocked sheds, with associated respiratory disease, neonatal infections and mastitis. It also caused significant logistical issues trying to get vets to affected animals.
With our 4x4s grounded by drifts and ice, tenacity and commitment from vets and clients alike was demonstrated. Between us we walked, got lifts and commandeered drivers with meaty vehicles to get to four caesareans and a lambing on the worst day of winter weather seen in Devon for decades.
Non-stun slaughter concern
It is some relief for the sheep farmers that lambs from early flocks and hogs from last year’s late lambing flocks are selling for very good prices. The method of their slaughter, however, is a contentious issue. An increasing proportion of sheep are slaughtered by non-stun methods, regardless of whether they are intended for the Halal or Kosher market. My opinion is any non-stun slaughter is too many, but the increasing scale of this practice is very disturbing.
In a completely non-random, biased and unscientific study, I asked a selection of sheep-farming clients what their views were on the subject. They were unanimous in absolute objection to slaughter without stunning. Several also added ineffective stun slaughter, due to poor practice, was equally unacceptable. Considerable veterinary pressure pushing for an end to this method or, at the very least, clear labelling for consumers exists, but will we succeed in ending it in the near future? I fear not.

Now, this may seem like a leap from the subject, but bear with me. In Iceland they tried to ban routine circumcision of baby boys. Reports of the evidence base seem clear it has significant risks and side effects, but no tangible health benefits. The practice is carried out for cultural and religious reasons. Icelandic politicians considered this a child protection issue, rather than a religious one and decided, on the basis of accepted scientific methodology, male genital mutilation should be criminalised. The backlash from religious communities was enormous across the globe. Terms like “fascism”, “Nazi state” and “persecution” were used about the decision. My point here is if an educated Western democracy cannot make decisions based on scientific evidence to protect tiny baby boys, what chance do we have to ensure evidence-based policy for animal welfare is not superseded by religious freedom also?
Disillusion
With all this doom and gloom, it is little wonder retention of vets is a challenge and the workforce crisis is also frequent in the veterinary press.
People might assume I was a vet to the core and would do nothing else. However, the truth is three years after qualifying, I had pretty much given up on my career. I had a confirmed place to study for the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) to teach biology and only deferred the offer to save more money.
I was well supported in my first job in mixed practice, but absolutely exhausted after a year. My next permanent role bored me senseless, with four out of five days TB testing, Wednesdays doing brucellosis bleeds and every evening consulting.
I moved to New Zealand and the experience for the season I worked between travelling was priceless. Calvings, calvings, every way possible you can think to do rotten calvings, metricures and synchrony, and then scanning and more scanning. I learned to be a proficient technician, but there was nothing there to give me real fulfilment and I was utterly disillusioned with what the job offered.
It was while locuming I glimpsed what farm vetting, between the technician jobs, could offer. I saw vets able to contribute to meaningful improvements in health and welfare through evidence gathering, consultancy and training. I kept my PGCE place open, but persevered with farm vetting and, through a series of lucky breaks, found the type of work I could find rewarding enough to maintain my enthusiasm.

Now, as a more senior professional, I think it is essential to encourage recent graduates to explore areas of interest, in addition to learning their day-to-day work. It can be really time-consuming and expensive for the business to invest in training staff locally or lose them for days to valuable CPD, but an enthusiastic workforce is morale-raising for everyone. I also think the farming industry has a role to play in supporting veterinary workforce retention.
Opportunities to engage younger vets and more vets in collaboration, funding to make specialist training more accessible and travel bursaries are all ideas the food chain sectors could consider to ensure we keep a skilled veterinary workforce to support farming for the future.
Motivation
It was good to see the BVA position statement on scanning surveillance. I can become quite blinkered to my local issues as a practitioner. It is motivating to see how you contribute to the bigger picture of disease monitoring. The launch of the APHA dashboards and communication encouraging greater use of the investigation centres are also positive. Investment in the veterinary public health workforce is well overdue.
For me, personally, it was highlighted with the realisation, to take a role as veterinary investigation officer in England would have involved a five-figure drop in pay from the equivalent post in Scotland. So, for now, I need to maintain my own motivation in clinical practice, particularly when the weather is rubbish. I’ve been booted and bruised, and the novelty of a five-month-long lambing season is wearing off. Did someone say holiday?
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