Defra health plans rejected by tenants

THE Tenant Farmers Association has rejected Defra’s latest plans on animal health and welfare policy, calling for greater sharing of the responsibility and costs of animal health and welfare between the Government and farmers.

Chairman Reg Haydon believes the consultation document start with completely the wrong assumption that costs are not already shared between the Government and industry. 

Speaking at the Royal Cornwall Show, he said: “The costs of complying with regulations, regular testing, under-compensation for animals taken for disease control purposes and consequential loss are all borne by the industry but do not appear to be recognised by Defra.

“Any policy must start from the reality that there is already significant cost sharing between Government and industry and that applying further costs on the industry is not justified.’’

The stated, dual aims of the new policy are to reduce disease risk and regulatory burden. However, the TFA believed the real reason was to reduce the cost of disease control to the Exchequer.

Mr Haydon said: “The farming industry is becoming weary of the cliched use by the Government of the term ‘partnership’ when it comes to animal health issues.

“With bovine TB, the biggest animal health issue facing the country at the moment, the introduction of pre-movement testing, the use of tabular valuations and the non-implementation of a cull of TB affected badgers are all evidence that the Government’s rhetoric on partnership is not transferred into action.

“The Government is naive if it thinks that TB will not cast a large shadow over its future policy on animal health.”