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Carcass disposal costs will soar
Jan 18 2005
The Farmer
Antony Spencer, a sheep farmer from Lower Quinton, Warwickshire, is already weighing up the cost of a ban on hunting with hounds.
For him, the Warwickshire Hunt not only controls the fox population, and therefore helps protect his sheep, but also saves costs of up to £1,000 a year for getting rid of animal carcasses.
Since the Government banned on-farm burial of carcasses, farmers have had to pay to get rid of stock, either using a disposal scheme, the knackerman or the local hunt.
Farmers can pay up to £25 for disposal of a sheep or lamb carcass, which alive can be worth about £50. But the hunt provides a free service to farmers who allow it to use their land.
The 31-year-old said: " People allow the hunts across their land and we will have their fallen stock for nothing. To get rid of fallen stock it costs about £25 a sheep. We can't do on-farm burial any more and there is no other way of disposing of them than send them to the knackers yard.
"Even if you work on one per cent a year for someone with 1,000 sheep, that is quite a lot of money. If I have to start paying to get rid of mine I would expect to spend £1,000 a year.
"For farmers with cattle it would cost about £60 to £80 for each beast and for a horse £200, so there are big implications for these farmers without even taking into account fox control."
The Warwickshire Hunt collects thousands of carcasses a year. One man is employed by the hunt to take care of the fallen stock. Mr Spencer said he relied on the hunt to control the fox population, a population he wants to see maintained rather than eliminated.
