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From around the time of the Norman Conquest to the end of the 19^th century, any traveller in Carmarthenshire in West Wales would have witnessed large droves of cattle, horses, sheep, pigs and geese, stretching over half a mile long being driven to the East of England for sale at livestock fairs, the cattle for further fattening before their ultimate sale in London markets. A horseman and two cattle acted as leaders for the drove. Each large drove of cattle would have comprised of several smaller droves from the villages of West Wales. It is estimated that for every four hundred beasts there would have been around twelve men, or drovers as they were referred to, all of which would have called and bellowed all the way to London. This must have been some spectacle to behold, as people spoke of the noise that was generated for generations after the practice of Droving gave way to the power of steam and the train network. The noise generated had two objectives, firstly to move the drove along, and secondly to warn the farmers in the locality of the impending threat. They of course would scramble to move their own livestock from the route as once mixed into the drove, they would be difficult to separate.

During these times, Welsh farmers derived most of their income from the breeding of black cattle. The Drovers not only provided a marketing service for their livestock, but were the main source of news for rural communities as to what was happening in London and further afield. The so called easy life in the new lands of America would have typically permeated the Drover grape vine.

By the 19^th century, the Drovers were professional men that needed licences to operate. To get such a licence, a Drover had to be over thirty years old, married and a house owner. No hired staff were eligible to run a drove. In 1799, Dafydd Jones founded the Black Ox Bank in Llandovery to facilitate the growing demand for the services of the Drovers. The bank had its own notes which carried the emblem of a Black Ox, examples of which can still be seen in the Llandovery heritage centre. During this time, Government agents had quite a headache negotiating highwaymen, thieves and pirates in safely navigating ship money and rents from West Wales to London. The answer came in the form of the Drovers Banking system. The Government agents would deposit monies in banks such as the Black Ox Bank. That money was used to purchase cattle, sheep, pigs, geese and by that time even turkeys for droving to London. The money raised from the sale of the stock that had matured and grown throughout the journey to London was used to pay debts and deposited in London banks. The safe passage of rent and ship money was secured in the form of livestock. No Highwayman was a match to the drove. The Black Ox bank prospered and was purchased by Lloyds bank in 1909.

Press cuttings from the period make very interesting reading and give an insight into the spectacle that must have embodied the process of Droving.

Daily News, September 1850. Beyond the Welsh Horse fair and nearer to Barnet is the Welsh cattle fair. Here all kinds of Welsh cattle are to be met with. These cattle are generally black, and though small are kindly and well-shaped animals which prove profitable where there is rough land attached to a farm on which they can run through the winter and until they improve their condition on a moderate quantity of food. They are much bought by the farmers of Hertfordshire, Essex, Sussex, Kent and Middlesex.

Barnet Fair, Farmers magazine 1856. Imagine hundreds of bullocks like an immense forest of horns propelled hurriedly towards you amid the hideous and amorous shouting of a set of semi-barbaric drovers who value the restive bullock far beyond the life of a human being, driving their mad and noisy herds over every person they meet if not fortunate enough to get out of their way, closely followed by a drove of unbroken wild Welsh ponies fresh from their native hills all of them loose and unrestrained as the oxen that proceed them, kicking, rearing, biting each other amid the unintelligible phrases of their human attendants – lots of non-English speaking Welshmen.

Those Welshmen needed to be highly skilled stockmen. The value of their drove would either increase or decrease on route to the London markets according to their ability and ingenuity. Not only was the threat of storm or drought a concern, but also disease such as foot and mouth.  The negotiation of the drove no doubt carried risk and took dedication. There were also human perils to be aware of.

Daily News, 1850. A Welsh Drover fell among the thieves at Barnet Fair and was considerably fleeced. He however had his revenge in the following fashion; quitting the town with his drove, he aspired one of his plunderers in the road, with the assistance of a brother drover or two he made capture of him, fastened him metsopella-like astride one of the wildest of his unbroken colts, that is, lying on his stomach with his face near the tail, started the animal off at a rough trot and after a ride of four to five miles, the fellow galled, jaded and three parts dead was glad to purchase his release from further torment by disgorging his ill-gotten pelt.

The memory of the Drovers lives long in West Wales. Many roads, pubs and bridleways are named after them. The Heritage Centre in Llandovery is well worth a visit to learn more about these honest men.
Llandovery Rugby Club players are known as the Drovers. I played for them and am proud to be a member of the “Hen Borthmyn” or Old Drovers, the ex-players organisation.

It certainly feels surreal driving sheep across London Bridge,

as though I have completed a circle, and fulfilled in part the objectives of my ancestors. I don’t have the licence needed during those times to be a Drover and am driving these sheep on a Sunday. If I did so in Victorian times, I would be fined £5 and receive a custodial sentence.

The Drovers must have looked like mountain men with mountain manners to the inhabitants of the city. Beware the people of London, A Welsh Drover is back in town.

Bacteria surrounds us, we have evolved in conjunction with bacteria, around fifty percent of our body is made up of bacterial cells, with the remaining being human cells. In short, we can't live without bacteria.

Friendly bacteria can keep us healthy, and disease causing bacteria can kill us. Our use of disinfectants over the last fifty years has been with the aim of sterilising surfaces to prevent infectious bacteria from harming us.

In many retail outlets, the prevalence and availability of alcohol hand gels are on the increase. But sterilising our hands leaves a wonderful surface area for repopulation by the next bacteria to arrive on our hands. So, the very next thing we touch, our nose, our phone, or a keyboard will populate our sterile hands with the dominant bacteria that populate those surfaces. So, we run the risk of growing dangerous bad bacteria to dominate the surface of our hands. The total opposite to our aim of sterilising.

Pruex distribute Bi-safe Hand Gel, an alcohol hand gel that also includes bacteria. Once the alcohol dissipates post application, the bacterial spores held within the gel start hatching friendly bacteria on the surface of the hands. This bacteria quickly becomes the dominant population on the users hands, and can prevent harmful bacteria from colonising the surface of the skin. The process uses competition for space and resources to limit the ability of harmful bacteria to populate the hands and become the dominant bacterial population.

We teach our children to wash their hands before eating a meal or after a visit to the bathroom. We, usually in public toilets, wash our hands and are then faced with a door handle for an inward opening door. It doesn't take a genius to work out which type of bacteria populate our hands thereafter.

Bi-safe Hand Gel could keep you and your family safe.

Autogenous vaccines (formerly known as autovaccines) are therapeutic vaccines, individually tailored for a patient or animal. These vaccines are made from cultures of pathogenic micro-organisms which are isolated from the site of an infection (furuncle, boils, abscess, urine).

On the 18th January, 2017, the article that featured Aled Davies, interviewed by the BBC One Show about alternatives to antibiotics in agriculture was aired. The week before, and a fortnight before, Aled had received emails, both on a Thursday stating that the feature would go out on the programme that evening. He diligently proclaimed the impending airing via social media, but the item was pulled on both occasions. He claims the "no-show" on two occasions made him very nervous. "Being filmed for an item on national television, you are at the mercy of the editor. I just wanted what I said to be properly represented, with useful soundbites making the feature as opposed to being deposited to the edit floor. When the item finally went out, I did feel a relief. Autogenous vaccines are a great tool in the prevention of disease, but my point about finding and negating the source of infection did come through."

Pruex works with farmers to find such pathogenic bacterial infections and negate their ability to infect farm animals and staff.

View the article here on the BBC iPlayer. (It starts 32 minutes in to the programme.)

In a modern agricultural context both animal welfare and production gains can be achieved by developing strategies to limit the effect of bacterial infections on farm. The starting point has to be based on evidence. Only by knowing which bacteria cause infections can farmers start to break the cycle of infection, cure and re-infection.
The alternative is to invest in treating every animal with a medicinal treatment, be that a bacterial vaccine, or antibiotic. Both of these treatments are given post an infection. Preventing the ability of bacteria to infect an animal is a key and achievable aim.
Pruex work with farmers to do three things:
1 Find evidence as to which bacteria are causing problems on farm
2 Based on the evidence generated, develop cleaning strategies to prevent infectious bacteria from building colonies
3 Inform consumers of good work done on farm to limit the risk of anti-microbial resistance from over use of antibiotics.
Farmers looking to develop strategies to ensure Prudent as opposed to Excessive antibiotic use should contact Pruex for more information.

Aled Rhys Davies gave a presentation on "Alternatives to Antibiotics in Agriculture" at the Nuffield UK winter conference. View it below:

The December issue of The Dairy Farmer features Pruex.  A link to the online version will be posted once it becomes available.

The Nuffield Farming Conference was recently held in Newcastle Upon Tyne. Presenting his findings on "Alternatives to Antibiotics in Agriculture" was Aled Rhys Davies of Pruex. 

Delegates learned of the issues of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), that have arisen from human misuse, but could well be blamed on agriculture unless the industry develop strategies to ensure prudent as opposed to excessive use of antibiotics. Aled stated that "We have evolved in line with bacteria, around 50% of a humans' body is made up of bacterial cells, so, we can't live without bacteria."

A lively questions and answers session followed where Aled was asked his opinion of improved genetics in the fight against AMR. His answer, which highlighted that bacteria breed faster than cows, eluded to the importance of using the genetics farmers already have to limit any risk of AMR, by working with their livestocks' defence systems to prevent infection or to limit the effect of an infection on the animal. For example, giving colostrum from dairy cows that don't have any bad bacteria in their udders and low somatic cell counts to newborn calves. These cows have the best immunity to the bugs present on the farm. There are two other types of dairy cows on the same farms:

•  Cows with bad bacteria in their udders and low somatic cell counts
• Cows with bad bacteria in their udders and high somatic cell counts.

Neither of these cows demonstrate strong resilience to the bugs on the farm. The solution therefore is to:

• Identify the cows with the best resistance to the bad bugs on the farm
• Using the Herd Screen system from Pruex
• Collect and store their colostrum to ensure each calf gets the best chance of developing an immunity that can cope with the bad bugs on the farm
• Using the ColostroStart system from Pruex

Herd Screen is a product that forms part of a programme that ensures prudent use of antibiotics.

More information on ColostroStart can be gained from this video:

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), in human healthcare was a hot topic today at the Medica World Forum for Medicine held in Düsseldorf, Germany. The international delegation of attendees confirmed the global nature of the problem.

Twenty percent of the event floor space was dedicated to laboratory equipment and diagnostics. Every stand demonstrating diagnostic equipment or consumables seemed to be swamped by visitors.

At the event, Pruex were able to source some very interesting products to aid the prevention of microflora infection of both animals and humans. More details will follow soon.

There were some fantastic products on show from both British and Irish companies. Pruex would like to wish them all well over the next 3 days.