Farmers hear views on cull

Farmers in Staffordshire have been told agriculture will be a political hot cake for the foreseeable future and they should be pressing for a wildlife cull to prevent the spread of disease.

The annual general meeting of the Staffordshire branch of the National Farmers' Union was held at the county showground on Thursday.

NFU national deputy president Meurig Raymond said the past six months have been difficult with challenges like foot and mouth, blue tongue and avian flu outbreaks and said the NFU would continue to champion its members to ensure that agriculture was high on the national political agenda.

During his speech he told farmers he was aware of the difficulties they had faced and will face with bovine tuberculosis also becoming a big issue which needs tackling.

He said: "We owe it to our members and to the industry and we are here to show the Government we mean business.

"The Government needs to move from a containment policy on bovine tuberculosis to one of eradication.

"We need to convince them they have to bring in a wildlife cull policy and we have to hope that we can get some movement on the disease soon due to the effect it is having on farmers."

At the meeting the deputy president met NFU county chairman Michael Madders, of Coppenhall, near Stafford, whose farm has just been given the all clear from bovine tuberculosis following 11 months, five tests and the loss of 30 cows. He echoed the deputy president's comments.

He said: "Fortunately we were able to isolate the cows from the badgers by fencing them out but not everyone can isolate the badgers in this way.

"We managed to identify a small area where there were badgers and were able to clear up the disease quite quickly but there are many others who are not so fortunate who have struggled for years over this disease.

"The key to making progress is a badger cull. The current government policy of containment is a clear failure as the disease is increasing by 20 per cent every year."