Rubbish - plastic bags etc

[Saffy]

I went to give my cattle their suckler cow rolls this morning, ( High Mag,) and noticed what I thought was a fertilizer bag at the top of the field blown in from next door. Fortunately I went and picked it up, it was about the size of a medium sized compost bag and had contained caustic soda. If one had licked the inside I assume she would have had some serious blisters.

Stephanie

[acrossthesea]

Hi Steph.
Not only the blisters, you would have probably have involved the vet who would have seen the blisters and before you know it you would have been closed. There would have been a cordon around you and on the news it would have said "suspected case of foot and mouth". It happened before with a dairy herd and he had been cleaning the pipes and this was the result. It took days before the cause was found. Irresponsable people who should no better can cause major problems.
Howard.

[AlisonKirk]

About six years ago we had a very sick 4 month old bull calf, which until found that morning had been perfectly healthy. Vet was called, suspected lead poisoning and the calf died shortly after his visit - his body was taken to Luddington, near Stratford on Avon for post mortem, whcih confirmed lead poisoning, The land was rented & a worker on the estate had decided to burn posts & wire in the field, topped with an old car battery which the calf had licked.

Fortunately, none of the other 53 Dexters had licked the battery & we had no more sick cattle. We could have lost most of our spring calving cows through someone else's negligence. We were left with a very distressed dam.

However, Animal Health were notified by Luddington, they examined the area of the fire & we were restricted from moving those cattle for three months; the farm worker had to clear up the debris & that area had to be fenced off.



Alison Kirk
Boram Dexters

[davidw]

I investigate claims for insurance companies and I'm afraid that I can add an even worse tale. Three or four years ago, someone changed a tractor battery in the field and failed to pick up the old one. It was picked up by a Hesston big baler, and packed into a straw bale. The bale was sold to another farmer who dropped the whole thing into a feeder wagon and fed it to his cattle. As a result 36 dairy cows and the herd bull died. Cash lost was at least £50,000. Its so important to keep control of anything remotely toxic.

[Duncan MacIntyre]

Back to the caustic soda - it really is nasty and nowadays is used in large amounts by those mixing their own feed for total ration feeding of dairy cows. It is supplied in very inadequate plastic bags. I had to deal with two very good dairy heifers purchased on mainland and transported in back half of a lorry with bags of soda in the front. Somewhere on the journey one heifer went down, a bag of soda was burst, and the powder made its way over the floor where the heifers were. The result was one of the most distressing sights I have ever seen. Obviously it should not have been on the same lorry as the beasts, but why on earth is it allowed to move it about in bags?

Duncan