Dairy farmers in the Midlands are angry and frustrated at the government’s failure to help them battle the foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak. Neil van Laun, who owns Fifehead Dairy in Lidgetton, described battling the virus without vaccines and government intervention to stop movement of animals as ‘like having your hands tied behind your back’. “With this being a state controlled disease they are the only ones that can make any of the calls and those calls are not coming quick enough,” he said.
Van Laun revealed that 1 300 of his Jersey Friesland cross dairy herd was officially diagnosed with FMD on January 6, but he believes it was contracted between seven and 14 days before that. His second herd of 750 animals, which are on a different farm nearby, are currently not infected. “When we started seeing the outbreaks moving and getting closer, from the north down towards us, we started implementing stricter biosecurity measures,” Van Laun said.
“We always had a certain level of biosecurity but obviously we ramped that up quite a lot. “The movement of cattle is restricted. We don’t move cattle onto the farm.
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We have communicated with all our neighbours in order to make sure that no one else is bringing cattle into our areas. We have done all that we can do.” Despite this, FMD struck and now he’s helplessly watching his cows suffer in agony. “The cows are absolutely miserable,” Van Laun said, “they start by getting a bit tender on the feet, so obviously walking distances starts becoming a bit of a hassle. “Then they start getting tongue lesions so they don’t want to eat.
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