The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: andywalt on September 15, 2010, 09:00:07 am
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If I were to find a dead sheep one day, is there a proceedure? do I have to notify anyone?
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If it was someone else's dead sheep, obviously you would tell them. If it's your own, you must not bury it (unless you are in certain distant islands) so you need to contact your knacker to collect it. They will not take decomposed animals and I am not sure what you are supposed to do if you have, say, a hill farm and haven't noticed a corpse for a week. If you have pedigree stock then you would notify the breed society. You also enter the death in your flock record book and tally your total stock numbers accordingly.
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So you wouldnt have to have it checked out for say blue tongue or anything like that? or foot and mouth? animal health dept does not need to be informed of any deaths?
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Thats a good question. I suppose, in most instances, there have been some symptoms which alert us to the fact that there is something wrong with the animal and we've taken advice and obtained some treatment before it dies. However, there are cases when sheep just drop dead! I've had two cases like this, and both were healthy animals showing no sign of illness. I never did find out what happened to them. I am not aware of any rule which states that a post-mortem (expensive!) has to be carried out in such circumstances but perhaps there should be. Does anyone know any more than we do about this?
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Never underestimate the knackerman, most are top people and caring with a sh!t job. they do look when they collect and most will mention a problem if they spot it, I have a lot of respect for these people.
Sheep and lambs cost of collection: A ewe is a charge as one animal carcass, dead lambs during lambing etc, can be placed into a bin liner or similar and most will charge the bag at about the same cost as a single carcass. (Not sure if thats helpful but worth knowing I guess)
As to rules etc, damn good question? Worth looking into or even a call to your animal welfare, they don't mind answering quires, if you do and get a reply post it here, unless we have someone come along in the mean time.
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Thanks Cobra
Knackerman !!! .......years ago if we had a dead cow or calf the hunt used to come and collect, when you say knackerman is that the same thing? if not does every area have one? is there another name for it?
andy
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the easiest and best thing to do, unless you have a hunt or convenient local knacker is join the national fallen stock scheme which is non profit making and will have a designated collector/s in your area.
It costs I think from memory £10 to join (one off) and then about £1 ish every month you actually have a pick up (cos they send you a statement then).
The collection cost is about £10 for a dead adult sheep.
Because of our remote location, our designated collector is about 2 hours away, but the cost doesnt go up, its still just the flat fee.
After a dog attack left one of my ewes dead :-(((( I was very glad of their quick and efficient service, I rang up at 9am and the carcass was gone before lunch, a great relief.
You dont have to pay the collector or even be there waiting for them, there is a direct debit and they just leave a chit.
heres the link
http://www.nfsco.co.uk/ (http://www.nfsco.co.uk/)
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Thats really helpful thanks
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We took a dead sheep to our local knackers yard and it cost us £10. We had to fill in a form giving holding no. and that was that.
They would have collected but that would have cost us £20 extra so we put him in an empty dumpy bag and heaved him up into the Landy ourselves.
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when we have deadons we take to local hunt or call them to pick up from a local farmer we know so if your friend up the road has a perticular method of disposal go along with his way as its easier if they got a few dead's to be picked up they do 1 hit they charge £10 each but i send all livestock and have/will send horses there to but i support the hunt in every way i can aswell
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If like me you do not support hunting, or do not wish your dead animals to be eaten by dogs, then there is a system of licensed disposal firms, covering the whole of the country, who collect fallen stock every day except Sunday, for a modest fee. These dead animals are incinerated. I would prefer to bury my deadstock on my own land but this is now illegal.