[Bramblecot]

Oh feldar!  You passed the door  - and the kettle was on!

[SteveHants]

............ he didn't get it at all - got me thinking back to the days before I was lucky enough to live here with all this - weekends usually involved shops, and occasionally the gym, and often looking around for something to fill the time. if I get to Sunday evening and am not aching and covered in scratches then its not been a good weekend- just thought I'd ask- what's as good as it gets in your worlds ?

I manage to do all my farm/sheep work, go to the gym, Rugby training and play the odd match on Saturday. 

[midtown]

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/69368/pb7949-cattle-code-030407.pdf

Thanks for that document, which I am familiar with.

If I could just draw your attention to the title page:
 "Code of Recommendations for the Welfare of Livestock"
There is a big difference between a code of Recommendations, and something which is "against the law"!

Welfare codes do not lay down statutory requirements.

However, livestock farmers and employers are required by law to ensure that all those attending to their livestock are familiar with, and have access to, the relevant codes. Although the main aim of the welfare codes is to encourage farmers to adopt high standards of husbandry, they may also be used to back up legislative requirements.

Where a person is charged with a welfare offence, failure to comply with the provisions of a welfare code may be relied on by the prosecution to establish guilt.

The text in the shaded boxes boxes within the code of recommendations, is the law as it stands on the date that the code was published.
There is nothing which states the keeping of a single animal is against the law.

[tizaala]

Well if you already knew that why didn't you post it? what pedantic idiot has the time or inclination to troll through reams of government crap , I don't , I just select the relevant bits that I think apply to me , And if that isn't law then why is it on the document ?. Why the hell can't these bodies just have black and white rules instead of accountant mentality jargon ?

[devonlad]

I manage to do all my farm/sheep work, go to the gym, Rugby training and play the odd match on Saturday. 

I think I've become a little (or very) sad, in that anything that keeps me away from being at home and working on my land feels like an unwanted intrusion which I resent. I'm sure that it is possible as you state, to do everything necessary to keep the livestock and farm going and do other things. When we moved here 4 years ago we acquired our lovely little cottage along with an adjacent field ( which we bought separately). at that time there was no viable fencing for livestock, no shelters, no pig house no lambing shed and a huge neglected garden. "The project" as we tend to call it has involved developing what we have into something much more usable. we now have chicken runs, field shelters a lambing shed, a huge vegetable garden and orchard as well as a cottage garden. the field is properly fenced and also divided into separate paddocks so we can rotate stock and also keep pigs. The lane was too narrow to get anything bigger than a car down, so that has been widened, hedged moved and laid- all done by hand and all done by us. On top of this we have a huge quantity of dead or dying wood to be processed for the fire and future projects include creating a wildlife pond at the wettest part of the field, building a cowshed and levelling a large area of ground so that it will be easier to get a baler in to the field in future. We have just started on our building extension to create a large utility room at the back of the house which although is being built for us will require a huge re-landscaping of the cottage garden as well as an ongoing project to move tonnes of earth to create somewhere better to park the cars and trailers. The list of "projects" is endless. I'm sure we could stop developing tomorrow and live with what we've got- I could get my golf clubs out of the loft and go back to a different way of living. Right now, nothing fills me with as much pleasure and drive as the work we do here. Just over a year ago I stated a new job, which carried with it a few perks, one of which was gym membership. A couple of months in a new colleague asked if I'd be interested in going to the gym with him of an evening. My reply I'm afraid is that if I've got enough energy to do that then there's probably a few fence posts that need banging in instead-

[midtown]

Well if you already knew that why didn't you post it? what pedantic idiot has the time or inclination to troll through reams of government crap , I don't , I just select the relevant bits that I think apply to me , And if that isn't law then why is it on the document ?. Why the hell can't these bodies just have black and white rules instead of accountant mentality jargon ?

Pardon me! Simple answer being you made a statement which it turns out was incorrect, but required double checking to see if you knew something no-one else was aware of!

For starters, I would have thought that anyone advertising as a course provider has a duty of care to ensure the information they impart is factual, and not a personal interpretation manipulated to suit their own ends.
If you're going to comment on an issue it pays to bear in mind that somewhere there'll be a "pedantic idiot" who has taken the time and trouble to wade through the "government crap", or has a degree of experience on other issues which permits them to comment, hopefully to benefit others and in order to prevent further confusion or misunderstanding.

Simple answer is to read the document in its entirety, then query the content with the department concerned who will advise if your own interpretation of the "relevant bits" are correct, either legally or as a recommendation.

[tizaala]

Some people were born to be penpushing pedantics- I was not , I deal in practicalities . The people that make these rules and regulations up have never slept in a stable and helped a mare through a difficult birth , or or spent hours unfreezing pipes  so their animals had water , I would rather show novices how to do the job rather than how to fill a form in, far more important to get that right than polishing a desk.

[devonlad]

Apologies if it's a private conversation  I thought the whole point of introducing welfare codes for animals/livestock was to make the prosecution of those mistreating animals more possible. It seems that whilst anyone with half a brain would know what maltreatment looks like it was necessary to clarify exactly what an animals rights were before you could charge someone with abusing those rights. The intention seems honourable enough , though the finished product does sound as if it was cooked up in an office far away from anything vaguely animally and sounds woolly and toothless.

[tizaala]

....and if it's woolly and toothless, don't buy that sheep either.... Herd and flock animals are just that...and should not be kept in a solitary lifestyle, they need companions to communicate with . Common sense does not come from a book.

[midtown]

....and if it's woolly and toothless, don't buy that sheep either.... Herd and flock animals are just that...and should not be kept in a solitary lifestyle, they need companions to communicate with . Common sense does not come from a book.

Nobody is disputing that .........
Simply contesting a statement that was not in fact - correct!

[tizaala]

I f you like " correcting incorrect statements " so much - why don't you get a job at No  10 ?
 

[Dan]

Final whistle peeps. I think we've clearly established the facts about the legalities of keeping a cow by itself, and hopefully the welfare issues that may not make it strictly "illegal" but do make it something that shouldn't be done as a matter of routine, and certainly not as a permanent arrangement.

The rest of this discussion please take off-line, and let's get back on topic to devonlad's appreciation of the life many of us on here are so lucky to enjoy.

Thanks for your attention, in case the above wasn't clear enough, I don't want to hear another word about who said what to whom when about what or I'll have to get the whacking stick out. 

[happygolucky]

You pair need  putting on the naughty step......what a lovely life

[Marches Farmer]

One of the things we make a point of doing is making time to stop and look at stuff.  It's too easy to walk through a field with your head down looking for thistle and not see the rainbow.  If you're stuck in an office, factory or shop when do you have the opportunity to stop and look at a dragonfly hunting around the pond or a bumble bee shoving its way into a runner bean flower or a lamb's tail waggling when it finds its lost dam?

[doganjo]

Since being ill I appreciate my dog walks more - I no longer go on a fast walk to keep up with them(can't anyway now  )  I saunter through totally fenced Forestry grounds so that my little hunters can still run free and do what they were bred for, and I can admire the newly planted trees and shrubs and look forward to seeing how they have grown as the years come and go.