After three years of testing new born calves, I received a welcome text from Animal Health Ireland's (AHI) BVD Programme update. "Based on current information, your herd now qualifies for negative herd status (NHS)”.

I hope more farmers receive the same text over the next 12 months and AHI can declare the country Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) free. This would allow AHI to concentrate on other diseases with the hope of also clearing these diseases from the country within a relatively short space of time.

Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis

As a suckler farmer trying to produce quality weanlings suitable for export, the next disease I would like to see tackled is Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis (IBR). This is a disease than can cause major losses for the buyers of our weanlings both at home and abroad. If we managed to tackle this disease on a national basis, the value of our weanlings could be increased instantly. Another positive would be reduced use of antibiotics which will please our new American buyers of beef.

US beef market

Overall I welcome the opening of the US market to Irish beef, the more markets we have access to the better. However I believe China remains the market there is the most potential for the Irish beef industry in. What we as farmers need to ensure is that the increased sales and profits trickle back down into farmers pockets.

Medical costs

While working on my profit monitor over the last week, I am happy to see costs in relation to veterinary and medicine continue to be reduced. In the last four years, I have managed to halve the amount spent on vet fees, dosing, treatments and vaccines. This has been achieved through a combination of the increased use of vaccines and minerals to reduce disease outbreaks and increased herd health which leads to less vet call out fees and treatments.

The one fee that remains constant is the annual herd test for tuberculosis (TB). Thankfully, over the last few years, the annual brucellosis test is no longer required and I was hoping that the pre-movement test for cattle over 24 months would also be eliminated this year.

The fact that TB testing is mandatory since the 1960s and still shows no signs of being eliminated should not be tolerated by farmers. This scheme has clearly failed and has led many farmers to question whether the BVD eradication scheme would also fail. This is maybe why some farmers have not fully complied with the terms of the scheme and continue to hold persistently infected animals.

I still believe AHI have done a good job in getting the message out there regarding BVD and I look forward to their next programme. Perhaps the Department of Agriculture would consider transferring responsibility for TB and Brucellosis eradication to Animal Health Ireland. Farmers may then be able to look forward to the elimination of the annual herd test along with the costs involved.