[Backinwellies]

Ok so by default I have learned of this new box ticking exercise which will cost us money!  Ie that of having to have an annual vet visit to be able to take stock to an abattoir .... just in case it is exported (thanks Brexiteers!)

If you have cows then this is lucky as you can tag this to your Tb test (ie no cost?)  otherwise I'm guessing you have to pay for vet to come out (income from a one of your carcases gone!)

Now I have a question .... if I am having stock slaughtered which I know is going to local customers ... exported as far as England from Wales possibly      why would I need this check?   

[Bywaters]

perhaps I misread this, but I thought is was ONLY if exporting meat abroad

If I did, then I would have thought the markets would have categories for exportable and non exportable

[twizzel]

You may get the meat back, but the offal, skins, other bits which you don’t get back with the carcass may be exported, which is why you’ll need it regardless of doing direct selling or not.

[Backinwellies]

So money for the boys again .... I pay my vet .... so someone else can cash in on the sheep skins... hardly fair

[Fleecewife]

So if I'm sending just a couple of sheep for my own consumption I have to have them inspected by the vet, at my expense?  I blame the vegans    for a subtle pressure to give up meat  (not really)


I wonder how this would work in some of the Northern Isles where there is a real scarcity of visiting vets?

[SallyintNorth]

If it's the same as the pig regs (which are vet visit within last *quarter*, I think, as of 1st Jan 2024), then it's about the abattoir not you.  If the abattoir processes any animal of which any part may make it into the EU, then this check applies.  I think.

Do not assume that a TB test will cover you, we have been caught out. 

Firstly, the vet does not need to send a qualified vet to do the TB test any more, they can send a technician.  Our vet allows us to *request* that they send an actual vet to do one of the TB visits, but depending on what is happening at the time, we may or may not get one. 

Secondly, you need the attending vet to see *all the species* you wish to be covered - and it's not just for the abattoir check box, it's also for the ability to get antibiotics to be prescribed over the phone.  And that's only for 6 months now, not 12 months as it was previously. 

Since we are most likely to want antibiotics for the sheep at lambing time, we aim to get our cattle TB tested as late as possible after housing for the winter.  The calves will have gone off by then, too, so we only have to have the adults tested.   (This year we're booked for the TB test mid November, so it'll cover any over-the-phone prescription we need up to mid-May.  We lamb from mid-April.) 

I'd answer your  comment, [member=4333]Fleecewife[/member], but I"d be in trouble for talking politics... 

There is no question, it is getting harder and harder - and more and more expensive - to keep very small numbers of animals for one's own consumption.   It may not have been the driving reason, but I doubt the government is shedding any tears if it pushes a few more smallholders and small farmers out of livestock production...

[Richmond]

I've just received this email from my vet:

Dear Farmer, legislation is set to change from 13th December 2023, meaning all producers selling livestock for slaughter need to have an annual farm veterinary check to allow their animals (or animal parts), to be exported outside of the UK. In practice, this applies to all animals unless the abattoir/market can guarantee that nothing derived from the animals (including waste products e.g. blood and guts/5th quarter goods) will be exported to the EU. If unsure whether this is the case, you should check with the abattoir/market you are using.

As vets we must verify the absence of notifiable disease and assess biosecurity to comply with EU export requirements. If you’re already part of an assurance scheme such as Red tractor, then you don’t need a veterinary declaration as your membership of an assurance scheme is certification enough. If you partake in the animal health and welfare funded visits then this also counts, but we do need to provide you with a veterinary attestation number (VAN) on our report, which needs to be provided to the abattoir or market. Remember, the animal health and welfare visits are fully government funded, so it’s a scheme that’s well worth considering partaking in.
 
If you have more than one site on your CPH, we will need to check every site and if you have multiple CPH’s then you will need a separate declaration/VAN for each CPH. The vet declaration needs to be for the last holding of residence before slaughter. Upon completion of a veterinary attestation visit, you’ll be provided with a signed declaration (which you must keep on record) and given the VAN, which you’ll need to provide to your livestock auction market or meat processor.  You will need a visit at least once annually.

[ZacB]

With so many local practices now ditching the large animal side this could become a real pain in the arse
I hadn’t heard of this coming in so a bit of a shock. As for the Brexit comment this has naff all to do with that this is just the bullshite bureaucracy that governs us & the EU.

[harmony]

The pig licence for slaughter has asked if you have a quarterly vet certificate from very soon after we left Europe but it is a yes or no answer. Vets shouldn't give you medicines if they haven't visited your farm in the last months but for years many have, which again vets have been tightening up on.


For those of you who think it has nothing to do with brexit it most certainly does. Just days after leaving Europe I rang the collection centre to arrange to drop off a cull sow. Not only were they experiencing transport issues they said I needed a vets certificate or they couldn't take her.

[Bywaters]

I am participating in the gov't funded Animal Health and Welfare visit / report  so have asked my vet to confirm that it will suffice and to make sure that it will

The visit / report was quite useful. Yet to receive the report but it teased out a few things that I was concerned about but also demonstrated that my worming plan works !  and that we haven't got fluke (at the moment)

[SallyintNorth]

With so many local practices now ditching the large animal side this could become a real pain in the arse
I hadn’t heard of this coming in so a bit of a shock. As for the Brexit comment this has naff all to do with that this is just the bullshite bureaucracy that governs us & the EU.

No, a lot of it is actually a direct result of Brexit.  It's about ensuring that all animal products which could enter the EU through Ireland will still comply with EU regulations. 

It would have been much simpler (for producers, abattoirs and processors) had the government simply agreed that all livestock production and produce handling would have continued to conform to EU regs, so that anything of UK origin could safely enter the EU by whatever route.  As the government did not want to do that, we have the worst of both worlds.  We still have to comply with the often convoluted and ill-conceived legislation dreamt up by Defra (or your country's equivalent) but now also have a raft of additional, often arcane hoops to jump through in order that the EU can - quite reasonably - be sure that nothing non-conforming enters the EU.

[Bywaters]

totally agree with you Sally

[SallyintNorth]

The pig licence for slaughter has asked if you have a quarterly vet certificate from very soon after we left Europe but it is a yes or no answer. Vets shouldn't give you medicines if they haven't visited your farm in the last months but for years many have, which again vets have been tightening up on.

As I am understanding it, the "yes/no" answer will need to be "yes" as from 1st Jan 2024.  But as ever, there is a lot of information out there, some of it contradictory... :/

[SallyintNorth]

For those of you who think it has nothing to do with brexit it most certainly does. Just days after leaving Europe I rang the collection centre to arrange to drop off a cull sow. Not only were they experiencing transport issues they said I needed a vets certificate or they couldn't take her.

We now can't get our cattle skins processed.  The firm we use used to send cattle skins to Italy but has elected to opt out of the additional bureaucracy and be a "not for EU" site, so is not now processing cattle hides "fur on".  (They can still do leather but it's the full skins we used to get.)  Until recently I had assumed this was about the EU regs per se but I can see now that it's more about avoiding getting caught up in the Northern Ireland Protocol malarky.

[harmony]

The pig licence for slaughter has asked if you have a quarterly vet certificate from very soon after we left Europe but it is a yes or no answer. Vets shouldn't give you medicines if they haven't visited your farm in the last months but for years many have, which again vets have been tightening up on.

As I am understanding it, the "yes/no" answer will need to be "yes" as from 1st Jan 2024.  But as ever, there is a lot of information out there, some of it contradictory... :/

Where have you seen that Sally?