Who in the U.K. Hates a Sheep?

Originally from: sandy
                        
Hi Burkie

You are right that it appears those on power would like to rid GB of sheep. The bse link was the precursor of this, and if FMD had not visited our shores, it may have taken a little longer to acheive goals. The feeling is that there were plans to actually kill (murder?) the entire national flock on the grounds of TSE, and that had the disclosure of the massive **** up by the laboratory that trying to link sheep to BSE via TSE, where it was found to be testing COW brain tissue instead of SHEEP brains, the national flock would not be here at all.

Other strange goings-on were the fact that people affected by the murder of their animals during FMD actually recieved cheques drawn from an account which had "European Animal Reduction Scheme" written on them? Odd or what?

Some in the sheep farming life, hold the theory that FMD came from "other" sources, maybe equally suspicious, but when it did take hold it may have given any powers that be, the opportunity to bring forward a mass reduction plan for the Country.

They say the want to help smaller farms who raise sheep and cattle, yet in reality these small farms, which make up the patchwork of our Countryside are mainly haemorrhaging to death while bigger agri-type businesses appear. This will lead to the end of much of the patchwork effect of land as the bigger farms need bigger areas of land, or rent land and use it to "get their monyes worth from it".

The decline in sheep prices did start back when the cattle boys were suffering so badly from the BSE disclosures, and those in power wanted to link BSE to sheep.

Probbaly, in all fairness, there were other things that has caused decline in prices too. On the commercial side there is the fact that the supermarkets demand more for less, and on the pedigree/ram breeding side maybe too many animals were/are offered for sale each year, instead of the breeders working together to only allow set numbers to go forward to other breeders.

We used to average around £650 ($1,066) for a well bred, well made ram lamb, and up to £1,000 ($1640) for a well bred yearling ram. Pedigree breeding females had a society reserve on them of £250 ($410).

Over the years since the bse crisis, we have seen our sales figures drop by two thirds until a well bred ram lamb from the ordinary breeder (rather than a well known big breeder!) has dropped to between £90-£240 ($147-$393), no-one can keep going like that, which results in something having to "give". Either quality or rearing, both ways the animal suffers and is not to the same standards as those bred before. Not saying this is all the fault of Governemtns or the EU though, some blame has to go to the farmers themselves, who thought in the shrot term rather than the long. Too many animals were sold to anyone who would pay the price, rather than kill out some of the animals that were third or fourth string quality and keep the breeders market hungry.

The result coupled with the year of FMD when pedigree sales stood still, so no sheep were marketed at all (apart from the commercials to slaughter) meant that many small farms could not cope, as the spent their savings on basic survival and looking after last years (FMD year) along with new season births. The end result is the same, many small, careful breeders have had enough and are getting the hell out of the game. Of course that means many smaller (but equally, if not better bred animals are no longer..along with some of the sheep breeders who couldn't take the heartache and decided to top themselves too!).

As for the NSP, yes the actual NSP is a free government run scheme, but many breeders chose not to trust this scheme (wonder why?) and opted to have private genotype testing by local sources. I think the current rate is around £13 ($21) per animal! Yeah right!! anyway it is a lot..there have been some wonderful mysteries surrounding the scrapie results too. Genotyping, one would have thought would have been the same whichever lab was doing the tests? (So long as the labs were competent of course). Many cases came to light last year, when mistakes seemed to have been made. A ram that has the genotype ARR/ARR which is used on ewes of ANY genotype will ALWAYS produce offspring with the ARR/ as the first part of the progeny's genotype. It may be ARR/ARH thru to VRQ (which is not desirable) but it MUST start ARR/. Well this isn't the case from some results, which has led to confusion and anger by some of the breeders as they query results. The NSP are always adamant that the progeny affected must be by ANOTHER sire..which in the case of the well organised pedigree breeders is an insult (we get used to those over here by those who hold power over us!)

An ARR/ARR ram to an ARR/ARR ewe will always produce ARR/ARR, well it is meant to work..it's just it doesn't always. Then we have the NSP bolus system, so that when an animal is genotyped and the results are back the animal gets a blous with a microchip shoved down it's throat for identification puropses along with a certificate that has a section like that you would have with a motor vehicle, when you change ownership you have to notify the department! Yeah Right!! This is all going to be free forever isn't it??? LOL.

The biggest scepticism re scrapie and the scrapie plan is that if they can ever get it to work properly, and how come these results are not the same depending on which lab does the test? and ONCE the whole of the UK flock had ARR/ARR (highest resistance to developing scrapie) will it mean that the animals themselves will become MORE suscepible to the disease itself, similar to someone not allowing a baby anywhere near any dirt or germs and then wondering why it catches some disease?

It is all most strange, and not eagerly grasped and taken as a good thing by many breeders of pedigree stock.

As for the BSE link from the unfortunate animal that had infected bovine material into its brain, it is no wonder to poor sod got the disease, I expect any specie would have succumbed in the end. The report did not say how many animals, and over how long a period these experiments were happening did it? I think if you look you will find they had tried to get a link for years with no success from other means, as in the test animals being fed infected material orally, it was the direct brain injection of infected material that got a result, even then only a minor one (not for the poor critter of course).

So Burkie most of the caring, careful breeders over here are absolutely fed up and many just giving up over here..it ain't worth the hassle and long hours that sheep demand if you are to breed good quality, well bred, well reared stock.
                        

Originally from: Burkie
                        
Dear Friends: It seems to me that you have one man that will do absolutely anything to rid your country of a ram, a lamb, or a ewe. Mr. Morley. And you have his counter-part compatriot, Mrs. Beckett.

I have watched what's been going on for nearly two years, regarding the sheep industry in the U.K...now...and without a doubt in my mind, I can honestly say, I have never seen them stand up to protect the sheep industry of Britain in any way.

Their goal is to eliminate it.

With that being said, just look at the latest announcements"

http://icnorthwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/farmandcountry/page.cfm?objectid=12392758&method=full&siteid=50142

Scrapie programme fear as sheep develops BSE
 Nov 21 2002
 By Andrew Forgrave Rural Affairs Editor, Daily Post

 
 A £120m PROGRAMME to eradicate scrapie from British lamb
 has been thrown into doubt after an experiment with a
 sheep caused it to develop mad cow disease.

 The sheep, one of a group most resistant to scrapie,
 developed BSE during an experiment in which its brain was
 injected.

 It is the first time the dis-ease has been transmitted to a
 sheep of this genotype.

 Although rural ministry Defra has stressed the risk of natural
 infection remains no more than theoretical, the news is a
 blow to government plans to breed scrapieresistance in
 Britain's 20 million sheep within 10 years.

 Animal health minister Elliot Morley, who yesterday reported
 the findings to the EC's Standing Committee on the Food
 Chain and Animal Health, is now taking urgent advice.

 He has asked the govern-ment's Spongiform
 Encephalopathy Committee (Seac) to advise on whether
 the research result, by the Institute of Animal Health, has
 implications for the National Scrapie Plan (NSP). Seac will
 meet early next month.

 The Assembly, which was shortly due to announce a
 Wales-only extension to the NSP, is being kept informed.

 A spokeswoman said: "It has been known for some time
 that sheep can be infected with BSE under experimental
 conditions. So this result, if confirmed, will tell us nothing
 more than we already know about the possibility of BSE in
 the national flock."

 This view was echoed by John Thorley, chief executive of
 the National Sheep Association, who said that while the
 research was "scientifically interesting", it should not
 impact on the government's scrapie policy.

 The NSP has genotyped 210,000 sheep since its launch in
 July 2001.

 In Wales 1,089 Welsh flocks have been genotyped and
 1,526 applications are being processed. A further 25,000
 ewes were genotyped under the Assembly's Welsh Ewe
 Genotyping Scheme last year.

 Welsh Rural Development Minister Mike German said at the
 time he hoped the changes would encourage more farm-ers
 to participate in the NSP.

 Mr Morley added: "The risk is theoretical and there is no
 reason why anyone should stop eating sheep meat."

Now then, let's just sit back and think.

1. How many obstacles have been put up ....by THESE TWO PEOPLE....TO ELIMINATE AN INDUSTRY?

2. WHY?

3. NEITHER ARE QUALIFIED, NOR HAVE ANY EXPERIENCE RAISING LIVESTOCK, REGARDLESS OF SPECIES

4. IS IT A HATE THING?

5. OR IS IT A MATTER OF STUFFING UP THEIR OWN PERSONAL AGENDAS?

6. IN OTHER WORDS, IT'S BECOME A PERSONAL VENDETTA TO PERSECUTE
 ANYONE IN THE U.K. THAT RAISES A SHEEP BY MORLEY AND BECKETT.

7. I FIND THIS UNBELIEVEABLE. THE U.K. LOST ITS PRESTIGE
 WHEN OTHER FIBERS BECAME THE FIBERS OF CHOICE BY THE WORLD
 PUBLIC LONG AGO.....THEREBY LOSING IT'S PRESTIGIOUS POSITION
 AS THE PRIMARY SUPPLIER OF WOOLENS.

8. LOSING THAT PRESTIGE IS SEEMS TO BE WHAT MORLEY AND BECKETT
 ARE ALL ABOUT. THEY WANT IT BACK....BUT CAN'T GET IT BACK.

9. SO THEY WANT TO SCUTTLE THE WHOLE SHIP AND FORCE EVERY SINGLE
 SHEEP PRODUCER OUT OT BUSINESS.

10. AND WHETHER YOU REALIZE IT OR NOT....THEY'LL USE "OFF-THE-WALL" SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS WITH BRAINS INJECTED AS A LAUDABLE WAY TO RID YOUR COUNTRY OF YOUR SHEEP.

A Minister of Agriculture? Supportive of his or her own countrymen? Bull. These two people have literally destroyed your agriculture in the past two years...with the tacit approval of your own Prime Minister and his Labour party happy campers with their friends in the loo.

Sick.

Sickest.

Who can respect anything out of the current U.K., other than knowing people, personally?

Burkie in Kansas