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While DAERA vets acknowledge that it will be “challenging” to get a badger cull off the ground this year, Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) president Victor Chestnutt remains optimistic that a six-week cull can begin in TB hotspot areas from 1 September 2022.
Plans to cull badgers by controlled shooting in specific intervention areas are included in a new TB eradication strategy published by DAERA, with final decisions on the way forward taken by Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots.
The intention is to follow the cull model used in England where shooting is delivered by farmer-led companies.
Chestnutt is keen to tap into this resource, using experts from England to train shooters here.
“They have the expertise to train people in NI. They are a very professional operation. I am not concerned about the farmer end of things.
“I think we can get it set up fairly quickly,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal.
However, while the Department will oversee and manage a cull, it is up to farmers to implement and pay for the actual cull itself.
Chestnutt is aware that finances might be challenging initially, and is hopeful that DAERA might provide some financial assistance to get a cull up and running.
It is also clear that this will not be a widespread cull across NI, and for an area to be approved by DAERA a number of strict conditions must be met.
Other potential issues include the need to get legislation passed at Stormont to allow a cull to take place, and whether a cull might be delayed by a judicial review taken by the badger conservation lobby
Those include that the area is at least 100sq km, the badger population density is above average, there is prolonged and significant TB in cattle and it is contained within significant boundaries such as roads or rivers.
When the Department looked at possible cull zones in 2017 it found that eight areas totalling 1,200km2 were suitable. That exercise is to be done again.
Other potential issues include the need to get legislation passed at Stormont to allow a cull to take place, and whether a cull might be delayed by a judicial review taken by the badger conservation lobby.
In the longer term, assuming a cull is successful, and lowers the disease incidence in badgers, the plan is to move to badger vaccination.
Compensation
The other key issue for farmers was DAERA proposals to cap compensation at £5,000 per animal, and reduce the amount paid out on all reactors to 90% of the value in year one, reducing to 75% thereafter.
Speaking in the Stormont Assembly last Thursday, Minister Poots said that given the role wildlife have in spreading bovine TB, he will not implement those changes now, and has asked officials to review the position two years after the strategy is fully implemented.
That is simply not sustainable and is a drain on the public purse
He also confirmed that as part of the new policy, interferon-gamma blood testing will be made compulsory where deemed necessary in herds, the Department will have new powers to test non-bovines and farmers will be encouraged to improve biosecurity and herd health.
He explained that the cost of the TB programme is around £40m each year, with about half that normally spent on reactor compensation.
However, with more reactor animals and higher cattle values this year, the bill for reactors is expected to rise to around £27m.
“That is simply not sustainable and is a drain on the public purse,” he said.
Reaction
Initial reaction to the DAERA TB strategy has been mixed.
Brian Walker from the Pedigree Cattle Trust described it as “ill-conceived and lacking in clarity”.
Sean McAuley from Farmers For Action said plans to cut reactor compensation in two years were “totally unacceptable” and expressed concern that a cull might again be delayed by a new agriculture minister.
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