‘Foot and Mouth’ forum for farmers

By Lachlan Ellis

With foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) an ever-present threat for livestock farmers, a free information session has been planned in Ballan, for farmers to discuss the issue.

Local farmers are invited to head to the Commercial Hotel Ballan at 6.30 pm on Wednesday 17 August, with guest speakers addressing FMD and biosecurity as a whole.

Vice President of the Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) Livestock Group, Scott Young, said the event will allow Moorabool farmers to chat about all kinds of issues they’re facing.

“You can come along and buy a counter meal, and eat during the meeting, it’ll be pretty low-key. We’ve got Cathy Bunting from the local vet, she’s going to come and have a chat about FMD and lumpy skin disease, and give us some practical advice on how we can improve our on-farm biosecurity,” Mr Young told the Moorabool News.

“We’ll also have the speakers from Stock Sense, which is a team run out of the VFF and funded by the government that travels the state doing some biosecurity and animal health information sessions. We’ll have some flyers and stuff there on the night, so farmers can go away with some basics on biosecurity set-ups for their farms.

“We’ve all got at least basic biosecurity, so this’ll just give us a heads up on how we can do things a bit better, and improve what we’re already doing,” he said.

The session will also provide an update on the VFF’s recent work around policy issues, such as rates, powerlines, and animal health.

“There will also be question time for people to tell us what their issues are, and what they’d like the VFF to be working on. It’s not going to just be about FMD and biosecurity, we’ll be having a general farming chat about what’s going on in the area too,” Mr Young said.

RSVP your attendance to Kim Tupper on 0448 043 654.