So much for Europe’s efforts at greater simplification of the processes and paperwork around farming.

That message has obviously not been communicated to the good people involved with disease control at the Department of Agriculture.

The Dealer recently heard of one unfortunate farmer who received a mini-novel from the Department after a single animal went down with TB.

The communication load exceeded 100 pages.

You’d compare it to War and Peace, only that Tolstoy’s great work was a little more interesting.

“It’s just as well nine or 10 of the cattle hadn’t gone down [with TB], or I’d have needed the transport box to collect the Department letters,” the farmer commented.