Good news for Graham

Our Berkshire boar, Graham, has been alone in his pen for the past fortnight but good news was confirmed today - his new ladyfriend may be free to join him in a week or two.

The Scottish Executive put a press release on its website on Tuesday saying that foot-and-mouth restrictions in Scotland would be lifted from next Wednesday (October 17).

But knowing the way the system works, I held off a minor celebration until I was able to get verbal confirmation from our local Animal Health office at Inverurie today.

The announcement means that, provided there are no further foot-and-mouth outbreaks between now and next Wednesday, movement restrictions in Scotland will be lifted completely and pigs will be able to be moved without first having a veterinary inspection.

It’s a huge relief for us as it means we could be in a position to bring our new sow back from Lanarkshire as early as Sunday week, depending on how quickly we can match our schedule to that of her current owners.

The timing also fits in with our Land Rover Defender’s maintenance schedule.

It’s down to have its timing belt changed next Wednesday so we’d be able to head off on the long trip south in the knowledge that we have one less thing to worry about. (Of course, long trips and old Land Rovers are always an interesting combination anyway!)

We also need to get the sow onto the croft as quickly as possible in case foot-and-mouth flares up again.

When the movement restrictions were lifted last time, we acted quickly to get our pig to slaughter and only just made it as a new outbreak of FMD saw the restrictions reimposed.

But we’re hopeful that all we, and Graham, have to do now is wait a little longer.