This was one notice I failed to notice
The 16 cattle that went north of the border last week graded largely as expected, mainly Os, with a couple of Ps. Eleven hundred euro more or less, on average.
Ok, let’s be honest. Did any of us really believe we would see the day when not overly well finished stock would regularly break not only €1,000, but even €1,100 or €1,200, at slaughter. Certainly I didn’t, when I shelled out €450 each for four Holstein-type Friesian crosses last October in Dungarvan. Not overly expensive on the day, but they weren’t overly fancy stock.
They are the type of cattle we all try to buy at a lesser price, in the hope that they might do a bit better than expected. But primarily their job is to bring down the average price of the better conformation but more expensive animals.
However, all was not plain sailing. Unbeknownst to me, they were about to fall foul of a little known Department of Agriculture rule.
To explain, last Monday morning, at 8.10am, my mobile phone rang. It was a very nice but by his own admission confused department official at the clearing station in Dundalk.
Apparently, when he switched on his computer, and put in my herd number, all appeared OK — clear herd, no TB restriction.
However, as soon as he entered an individual tag number, the system developed a sort of seizure, and would not clear any of my animals to go north. He didn’t know why, I didn’t know why, and when I eventually got hold of the District Veterinary Office in Waterford, the lady there didn’t know why either. However, she knew someone who might.
To cut a long story short, I was eventually told that despite my herd being clear — a status I’ve managed to maintain unbroken for a good number of years — and despite all my animals at the border being within the 12 months TB test requirement, my herd was trade restricted.! Is that like being locked up? Apparently not, but in this circumstance, it felt like it.
The cause of my problem, I was told, was my slaughtering of one animal last July who was over the 12 months TB test requirement, but within the 20%, 18 months cut-off for cattle slaughtered in the Republic.
The downside of that concession is that, apparently, if more than 20% of your herd at home is out of test at any one time, despite your herd being a clear herd, you cannot sell, unless selling directly to a factory.
I was completely taken aback.
Once I had got my head around the technical aspects of the rule, I argued I was selling directly to a factory. However, the problem from the department’s point of view was that the factory was outside of the state; at least I think that’s what their argument was.
The solution was to test the offending animals, and providing the test was clear, bring the percentage untested below 20%. By Thursday morning, all was in order, and the Dundalk cattle proceeded on their way.
From my perspective, I had done nothing wrong. None of my animals either sent for slaughter or at home had broken any rules, as far as I could figure out. Yet this interpretation of that rule is there, and it caused me a great deal of stress, not to mention expense.
Although I had received a notice from the department after the slaughter of that one animal in July, it made no mention of restrictions applying to animals to be slaughtered in the north.
Reading the notice again, it raises more questions than answers, and I hate loose ends like that.
