Skip to Navigation | Skip to Content



Jilly and her husband Edwin are quality beef producers, farming over 500 acres in the Exe Valley, seven miles north of Exeter.  Based in the flood plains of the Exe and Culm, lush green river meadow covers large areas of the farm.  These meadows have defined their system of suckled beef production using the native South Devon and continental Blonde to produce high quality beef in the most natural way, happy and contented.  They have around 200 head of cattle and run a closed herd system, breeding their own replacement stock and running stock bulls with good growth rates, extra length through the rib and width on the loin.  Although Jilly and Edwin farm in a conventional way, they try to do this with balance and harmony for the wildlife and landscape.  They work with the RSPB in a Countryside Stewardship agreement on parts of the farm to increase the populations of cirl bunting, grey legged partridge and sky lark.  Jilly is Vice Chair of NBA South West.

An archive of Jilly's articles is available.

Read on for her latest news...

Getting a Grip

March 2010

By the time this is published, Jim Fitzpatrick, Minister for Food, Farming & the Environment and MP for the London borough of Poplar & Canning Town, will have visited the Devon badger vaccine trial project near Tiverton.

Mr Fitzpatrick has some pretty hefty responsibilities not least animal welfare, animal health and bovine tb programme.  (A former firefighter, his listed political interests include antipoverty, regeneration, anti racism and fire.

It is a positive signal however that he is visiting the county, getting on farm and talking to vets and farmers.  Any city based MP cooped up in Westminster gets a much better understanding of the issues by seeing farming and rural issues first hand - not least hearing that 150,000 cattle have been slaughtered in the South West since 1997 and still rising.

But I suspect this is more a pr opportunity, warm words to reassure the farming industry and the animal lobby groups, validating pre-election Government policy, rather than seriously examine whether this trial will actually work or best use of tax payer’s money in the fight to eradicate btb from badgers and cattle.  Vaccination does however have a role in protecting healthy badgers creating a fire break between heavily infected and clean areas.

You have to remember both these trial sites are located in btb hotspots with a high percentage of infected badgers, spreading infection in mucous, urine and faeces onto grazing pastures, fence lines, woodland and hedgerows, sometimes through direct contact with livestock, thereby perpetuating the recycling of disease. 

Vaccinating an already infected badger gives no protective benefit to the badger itself or immediate contribution to the escalating problem of meaningful eradication.  It may be infection neutral but it is stressful for an animal to be caught in a cage, turned upside down and suspended on its head for a few minutes, while a sharp needle is shoved in its rear end before marked and released.  Not all the badgers in these trial areas will be caught.

But we should be asking what happens to the seriously sick badgers, trapped in this experiment, the super-excretors in the later, most infectious cycle of disease – wasted with visible lesions, long clawed and putting dairy and beef farms at high risk?  Are they too jabbed and released?   Commonsense suggests they should be humanely put down (and this might now be the case), examined before incineration to assess tb strain and geographic area source, helping to plot the spread of disease and increase knowledge.  

Meanwhile, the licensed handlers become practised at caging and handling angry badgers, farmers more aware of badger setts, badger movements and farm bio-security.   Four more tools in the tool box to get a grip on this cruel disease. 

The Tiverton trial is a building block and will help progress the science based VLA 9 project and other complementary control methods that need pilot funding, so they can all make a difference in the long battle against btb.

Words and photographs by Jilly Greed,  Vice Chair NBA SW

 


Contact us at MVF if you need more help >>