Cleaning the farm

Asbestos is a BIG problem on most farms. Costs a fortune to dispose of and to re-roof cattle sheds. Much of the problem of having to do this is because MAFF shot animals in their barns and left them for up to two weeks. The animals stomachs filled up with gas and exploded - covering the roof in UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG! I had ONE dead cow that took 5 days to get a contractor to bury and my wife nearly left because of the smell - imagine what it would be like to have 200 or 300 cattle lying dead in barns near your home. The killing would be easier in some respects, to cope with. Some farmers have been to hell and back over this.

If they had vaccinated and slaughtered (which isn't even necessary), they could have slaughtered when they had the disposal team ready to move the carcases. Horrible balls up! Serves Townie Blair right - he hasn't a clue about the consequences of killing on farms. Farms are for rearing animals - not killing them!

David

Hello,
I am convinced that half of the clean up job is simply to keep the poor old farmers quiet/usefully employed for a while as watching it at close quarters I cannot see that it makes any sense - eg. our local farm - 60 cattle killed in sheds, 4-5ft deep of muck taken out of sheds STILL lying in field [waiting to be spread, presumably], while the floor that lay 5 ft below that muck is being dug out and buried in a pit! not to mention many other similar nonsenses, but I think that one takes the biscuit!
Wendy
Seen the same thing here, piles of muck sitting in the fields waiting to be spread along with the soil from the barn floors. They seem to go over the top in some instances and then do silly things like that. The local news said that the first clean up or 'damping down' straight after the animals have been removed will still go ahead - but all others cleans are yet to be decided upon. There are people who have seen some ex farmers turn DEFRA clean-up operators with open cheque books going around no money spared situation (all DEFRA signed) and TB say's he had NO idea of the cost.

Strange how the money has suddenly dried up - when we need to clean infected premises though. The army had a open cheque book - for machinery and man power - but then that was to get RID of all the animals - compensation was NO problem - again to buy out ALL the animals infected and non infected, slaughter men on get rich quick wages, the list is endless - apart from now! The Minister who made the original statement has said he knew when he made it that it was going to be followed up by a statement announcing that all cleaning was going to be suspended. Talk about Jackanory!! this lot have written the script.

Coleen

Hardly surprising that the costs of C&D are so high when you hear the following:-

Farmer strimming round building prior to dissinfection, asked by DEFRA where the strimmer came from, told it belonged to him. Can't have that said DEFRA we'll pay #34.00 per hr for the use of.

Mountain of coal left in yard. Farmer asked what they intended to do with that, told, "you've got a fire haven't you?"

Hardcore ordered by DEFRA far in excess of the amount required - surplus abandoned on site.

Farmer currently hires himself out to DEFRA for C&D on #15.00 hr with all hotel & food paid for on top plus he hires out 2 killing crates at #300.00 per wk each. He complained to DEFRA that the disinfectant was rotting the landrover, told, "Don't worry you can have a new one when you've finished."

Simon & Pam

"Our buildings are all only 10 years old. Older buildings are a lot more difficult to clean. We have a 50-year-old milking shed, when we turned the pressure hoses on the roof the asbestos started to shred." (BBC July 24)

Lord have mercy!!! I manage toxic tort litigation for a living here in the states and spend lots of time and LOTS of money in asbestos litigation in particular. I can see the next wave of this "cluster" heading in that way...

Marsharee