British Simmental Review 2018

spent several years vaccinating and testing to achieve elite
accreditation, so it seemed imperative that we use any
means necessary to protect against the threat of TB.
TBAS recommend a five point plan, which we followed
religiously. Having some of the recommendations in place
already – for example fencing off all watercourses – we
set about the remainder of the list, following the advice
from TBAS of ‘majoring on the major, and minoring on the
minor’. The major issue to us was obviously the wildlife
concern, and in particular the local badger population.
Restrict wildlife access. Providing the setts are outside
the field boundaries, the easiest way to prevent badger-tocattle
contact is to prevent badgers from accessing grazing
land. Fortunately for us, our fields do not contain any setts,
and we looked at prevention of access by a combination
of fencing, closing gaps and sheeting gates. The original
plan was to dig fences down into the ground to prevent
access, but we were informed that strategically placed
electric fence would be a much more effective deterrent.
The fence has to be spaced at 10cm, 15cm, 20cm and 30cm
from the ground. The boundaries of the land are very
uneven, and we used fence stakes to pull the wire down
where required. Where there was evidence of badger
entry points, an extra strand was put in place at 40cm. All
gaps need to be less than 7.5cm, and gates were covered
with galvanised sheeting. For extra security, concrete can
be laid under gateways, but our gateways are fairly hard
standing and this wasn’t considered necessary. We thought
it might not be the best idea to run high voltage wires
around the edges of the catching pens, so this was done
with sheeting too.
Maintenance of the fence is imperative to ensure it is
working to its full potential. Two of our fields are mains
fenced, one is on a battery fencer. They are checked
daily using a hand-held fence tester, (or occasionally on
someone’s legs) and once a week the fence perimeters are
walked so short-outs can be heard, located and rectified,
and any evidence of incursion can be spotted. Once every
few months or when needed, the boundaries are strimmed
to keep the grass down.
Manage feed and water. Although our risk assessment
showed absolutely no evidence of badgers at the farm,
we decided that many of the recommendations would be
great practice. These mainly involved preventing wildlife
access to anything consumed by the cattle. Feed and
water troughs have been raised, and are cleaned out and
disinfected regularly. We mix and roll our own feed, so
grain bins have been fitted with removable secure lids.
The shed has had metal roller shutter doors fitted, and all
entry gaps have been sealed. The personnel door has been
Roller Shutter Doors
036 www.britishsimmental.co.uk