Bovine TB is one of the most difficult ongoing challenges that livestock farmers face. Given the devastation TB breakdowns bring, simple, cost-effective biosecurity measures to combat the disease are always welcome.
Improved badger-proofing is one of the many tools necessary to tackle bovine TB, and agricultural engineer MG Hudson offers equipment to keep badgers and cattle apart. The company produces a selection of elevated lick holders to raise mineral licks out of reach of badgers. Preventing badgers from gaining direct access to mineral licks can reduce TB transmission risks.
Badgers are very capable at climbing and will attempt to investigate food raised off the ground. MG Hudson’s lick holders therefore meet TB Advisory Service (TBAS) requirement that the lip of the bucket is kept a minimum of one metre off the ground. The range includes those that attach to gates and fences. Robust and heavy-duty, the holders will not bend when cattle lean against the holders or use them as scratching posts.
Bovine TB ruins livelihoods. The consequential cost of losing cattle is front of mind to pedigree breeders such as Wynford Wagyu. The Shropshire-based farm breeds genetically elite full-blood cattle to produce the finest quality wagyu beef. Established in 2018, Wyndford Wagyu has invested in some of the world’s best Wagyu genetics with the aim of becoming the finest full-blood Wagyu breeding unit in Europe.
Farm manager Rob Edwards has been working with MG Hudson to badger-proof the farm and improve biosecurity.
“We have a little more than 200 full-blood Wagyu cattle and a further 200 Holsteins that we use as embryo recipients, so our total stock is of very high value,” he said “Cattle health is the biggest threat to the business with Bovine TB being one of our biggest concerns.
“We sell embryos and semen globally, while breeding stock and bulls are available for sale in the UK and in time into Europe. If a bull, for instance, has been in a herd that’s gone down with TB, it can never go into a bull stud, so Bovine TB is a huge threat to us.
“MG Hudson made bucket licks and racks to put everything up out the way,” Mr Edwards added. “We’ve been using the bucket licks for about 18 months, and we’ve fitted all our recipient pens with them as we constantly feed bucket minerals to them. This ensures that they get the right mineral package so that they stand the best chance of holding to an embryo.
“MG Hudson works with us to ensure there’s nothing on the ground. If there’s a nice block of molasses at ground level the scent will travel far better. Being up in the air, it’s not at that ground level scenting. A badger is very much smelling what’s along the ground, they don’t tend to air scent quite so much.
“We’re always working to try and stop interaction between badgers and cattle on the farm,” Mr Edwards said. “MG Hudson has changed gates for purpose-made sheeted doors around the farm and at our Isolation Unit, which holds all our highest value stock.”
MG Hudson’s products are designed in line with TBAS recommendations regarding contact between badgers and cattle. It recommends restricting badger access to feed stores, troughs and mineral licks. TB-infected badgers can excrete bacteria that can result in contamination of feed and the area around it, that can then act as a source of indirect transmission of TB to cattle.
The company is based near Nantwich and specialises in the design and fabrication of bespoke agricultural implements, calving gates and sheeted doors. Mineral lick holders are available painted or galvanised, being custom-made to specification as needed.
The owner owner and managing director of MG Hudson, Michael Hudson, said the company aimed to offer farmers more control over bovine TB with easy options to badger-proof their set-up.
“It’s about helping them do everything within their power to protect their herd and prevent the spread of the disease,” he added.
