Reward offered for stolen tractors

As reported last week, two John Deere tractors were stolen from Woodside Road, Ballymena, Co Antrim, on the night of 1 August.

The tractors, a 1998 John Deere 6900 registration number S160YNP and serial number 876214 with a front linkage and a 2000 John Deere 6810 registration number XBZ8591 and serial number 264944, were stolen along with a red McCauley tandem axle low loader trailer. The tractors were last sighted on CCTV cameras travelling between Irvinestown and Enniskillen, with one of the tractors being carried on the low loader.

The McDonnell family, who own the tractors, say that the equipment was worth up to £60,000. But they say the replacement cost could be more than twice that.

The family is offering £1,000 for information leading to the recovery of the machinery. Anyone with information is asked to contact the PSNI.

Growers keen for business

Livestock farmers are being encouraged to do business with local cereal farmers by Ulster Farmers’ Union cereals committee chair Allan Chambers.

He said that buying grain and straw from NI cereal growers represents good value for money. “It cuts out unnecessary haulage costs and often makes a higher-quality ration than some imported by products,” he said.

Chambers said that variable weather will result in lower than expected yields and that unpredictable global grain markets will both impact producers this year. “What we can guarantee is quality, local supplies to our neighbouring livestock farmers,” he added.

FFA protest in Britain

Farmers For Action (FFA) held a protest at Müller’s processing facility in Market Drayton in Shropshire on Sunday evening over the processor’s decision to hold its September base price at 18.66p/l for its Müller Milk Group and 18p/l for the Direct Milk group.

Further protests are planned for this evening (Thursday). At the protest on Sunday, deliveries were prevented from entering or leaving the site from 8pm and throughout the night. Around 80 farmers were involved in the protest.

The group claims that improving dairy markets allow for an additional 2p/l to be paid by Müller from September.

Indirect contact spreads TB

A study published last week has suggested that indirect contact between badgers and cattle is most likely to be the main route for the transmission of TB.

The study tracked the movements of 421 cattle and 53 badgers across 20 farms in Cornwall.

It found that there were no cases of direct contact between badgers and cattle when the cattle were both housed or at grass.

The research showed that badgers tend to stay about 50m away from cattle, which supports findings from a smaller study conducted in NI by AFBI in 2014.

The most recent study found that badgers were found to have a preference for cattle pasture, meaning there was indirect contact through environmental contamination, mostly via infected faeces.

Copper poisoning in sheep

Sheep farmers are being reminded of the risk of copper toxicity in sheep following a peak number of cases seen at AFBI laboratories last summer.

Toxicity is most common in Charollais, Texel and Suffolk breeds and less likely in mountain breeds. Toxicity occurs after a prolonged period of high intakes when the liver’s ability to store copper is exceeded.

The risk mainly comes from feeding concentrates containing high levels of copper, excessive administration of copper in mineral supplements or boluses and grazing pastures which have been dressed in pig slurry.