Depopulation

bob charles

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Depopulation discussion split off from Chit Chat thread

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freedominacup wrote: »

Thanks for the good wishes, all clear thankfully.

Good to hear. Every very successful local farmer was depopulated with TB in there farming lifetime. Strange but true fact around here.

My remark was made in jest so I hope no one takes offense to my wording. it must be a horrible period in anyones life

1chippy

bob charles wrote: »

Good to hear. Every very successful local farmer was depopulated with TB in there farming lifetime. Strange but true fact around here.

would it be down to the fact they had to start from scratch or something else.

bob charles

1chippy wrote: »

would it be down to the fact they had to start from scratch or something else.

I dont know, maybe it allowed them to re appraise, when they had a break, or else maybe they had the money to pick and choose the cows they want when repopulating. Its just a fact about allot of successful dairy farmers that are fairly local

freedominacup

bob charles wrote: »

Good to hear. Every very successful local farmer was depopulated with TB in there farming lifetime. Strange but true fact around here.

For a dairy farmer depopulation isn't even close to a worst case scenario for a TB breakdown.

bob charles

freedominacup wrote: »

For a dairy farmer depopulation isn't even close to a worst case scenario for a TB breakdown.

I know freedom, but its just something we noted, maybe there is nothing in it, but the two seemed to go hand in hand. I know of one very fraught case currently with a depopulation, it must be an awful thing to have to do

KCTK

bob charles wrote: »

I know freedom, but its just something we noted, maybe there is nothing in it, but the two seemed to go hand in hand. I know of one very fraught case currently with a depopulation, it must be an awful thing to have to do

We got depopulated with BSE back around '02, we were in suckers back then, was terrible to see all the young calves heading off, made no real sense to me why everything had to go due to only one cow, I went to America for that summer while they were all gone, the father found it tough going with out an animal around the place for a few months

moy83

bob charles wrote: »

I know freedom, but its just something we noted, maybe there is nothing in it, but the two seemed to go hand in hand. I know of one very fraught case currently with a depopulation, it must be an awful thing to have to do

We got depopulated with bse and it was ****ing brutal . The father couldnt stomach being in the place when they were taking them so I had to load them up . The dry stock were ok because they were always being sold anyhow but the milkers all had names and they would have been bred back generations so we would nearly consider them family . I spent an hour crying after the last cow was loaded .
We bought back 30 well bred holstiens then , a couple of months of fun getting them into the parlour ! And they needed a hape more nuts then what we were used to giving the older ladies . Nothing nice about any of that business .

freedominacup

bob charles wrote: »

I know freedom, but its just something we noted, maybe there is nothing in it, but the two seemed to go hand in hand. I know of one very fraught case currently with a depopulation, it must be an awful thing to have to do

We went through a breakdown that took out 50% of the dairy herd around 20 years ago. We were then locked up for the bones of 12 months with the big stick being waved over our head that if we re-stocked while locked up we'd be on our own with no compensation if we had another breakdown. You still have all of your fixed costs to deal with but only half the income it damn nearly broke us at the time. You end up with most of the compo getting frittered away to cover bills. Our breakdown happened in June so most of the costs for the year were incurred, 1st cut in second cut fert spread, most spraying done on any crops etc. All of those bills had to met and by the time we were clear we had to borrow to our max just to buy back around half the cows we lost. The real clincher was we only had a handful of heifers on hand. If it happened me again they wouldn't get one beast without taking them all. We'll all lose one or two from time to time but when it gets up towards 50% of the milkers in one slap it's extremely tough.

td5man

freedominacup wrote: »

We went through a breakdown that took out 50% of the dairy herd around 20 years ago. We were then locked up for the bones of 12 months with the big stick being waved over our head that if we re-stocked while locked up we'd be on our own with no compensation if we had another breakdown. You still have all of your fixed costs to deal with but only half the income it damn nearly broke us at the time. You end up with most of the compo getting frittered away to cover bills. Our breakdown happened in June so most of the costs for the year were incurred, 1st cut in second cut fert spread, most spraying done on any crops etc. All of those bills had to met and by the time we were clear we had to borrow to our max just to buy back around half the cows we lost. The real clincher was we only had a handful of heifers on hand. If it happened me again they wouldn't get one beast without taking them all. We'll all lose one or two from time to time but when it gets up towards 50% of the milkers in one slap it's extremely tough.

Been there still havent recovered from it yet. :-(

bob charles

I can only imagine the feeling, as much as I might hate having them here, it would be fair earry to go into that yard if it was empty. I taught if you had allot of cows down they would take them all?

freedominacup

bob charles wrote: »

I can only imagine the feeling, as much as I might hate having them here, it would be fair earry to go into that yard if it was empty. I taught if you had allot of cows down they would take them all?

A near neighbour was left with 6 out of sixty after three failed tests on the trot and they were still refusing to "depopulate" him because a different compo regeime kicks in and they didn't want the cost.

Rovi

We were depopulated with Brucellosis over 20 years ago, and to this day thinking about it puts me in a bad place

Watching 3 (human) generations worth of care and breeding going up the ramps of the lorries is a depressing sight.
Calving cows in the full knowledge that the calves would be shot and thrown in a skip before the day was ended is an appalling thing to have to do.

I'm tearing up just writing this, and it happened almost a quarter of a century ago! :rolleyes:

It's not something you'd wish on you worst enemy.

quader

was actually involved in the haulage of a good few depopulated herds in the last couple of years ,all the farmers i met were sad there cows were going but all bar one understood the reasons for it and and were of the opion that it could be worse . as i said all bar one had a story of some one else that had worse trouble or worse trouble they had gone through them selfs and they all said as long as it stays outside the door we will cope. to be honest i was very suprised at the attuide of the famers

keep going

Depopulated in 02 and was out and in 42days.the Friday morning the last of them went I was quizzing up department guy abou the powerwashing and I said we would have it done by Monday. At the time I was working and I said we would start after work that evening (I had nothing else to do anyway).he remarked that people with off farm work tended to handle depopulation better

bob charles

bob charles wrote: »

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Good to hear. Every very successful local farmer was depopulated with TB in there farming lifetime. Strange but true fact around here.

My remark was made in jest so I hope no one takes offense to my wording. it must be a horrible period in anyones life

My comments were made in jest so hopefully no one is offended by them. I couldnt face the yard if I knew there was no animal in it, and the place would have an eeriness about it that wouldnt be good for the head.

stanflt

in the 90s we lost 36 out of 58milkers
in the early 00s we lost 28 of 64 and 12suck calves(heifers)

we tried sheep
we tried raspberries
made no money at either but kept my dad very busy and his mind off things

losing them the second time was sole destroying-that spring we won an award for the top RBI herd in the country- things were going really well which worries me as there is always something around the corner

C0N0R

We lost the whole herd to bse in 98, was only eleven at the stage so I guess I never understood the full impact of it, but still found it very emotional at the time. Had great fun going to dispersal sales with the father and the farm manager at the weekends to pick stock though and ill never forget when the first load of cows arrived back to the farm, as the lorry was reversing in me and the farm manager just looked at each other and smiled. Also remember the amount of neighbours that came to help us clean the place so we could get the all clear ASAP was great, department man said he could smell the disinfectant from the cross!

Milked out

We lost the whole herd to brucellosis in 02, was right tough on dad, he started with a herd of 8 cows and had built it up to 100 using a lot of AI through the years. As stan said things were going well at the time, a few loans were cleared and he had the herd where he wanted it to be and then for him to get hit with a bombshell like that. We were all in school at the time but every one of us were down for a good bit after it.. Still he got on, restocked and built the business back up again, bad enough as it was there are worse things that can happen

20silkcut

The worst depopulation is one caused by financial hardship. It's 26 years since my father sold his 45 cow herd and the farm has not recovered since. (That is up to me).
But really when the banks pull the plug that's when you are really stating in to the abyss.
Many farmers out there are not only losing their animals but the land under them as well.

RobertKK

keep going wrote: »

Depopulated in 02 and was out and in 42days.the Friday morning the last of them went I was quizzing up department guy abou the powerwashing and I said we would have it done by Monday. At the time I was working and I said we would start after work that evening (I had nothing else to do anyway).he remarked that people with off farm work tended to handle depopulation better

I suppose the off farm work takes their mind off it more while those who didn't have or need off farm work are more affected.