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You know that the stress of weaning can make young cattle sick.

You know that the stress of weaning can make young cattle sick.

You no longer have to feel helpless in the fight against infections that arise in young cattle triggered by stressful weaning. In Canada, a simple nose tag has been developed to reduce weaning stress. The calf is fitted with a Quiet Wean nose tag. It prevents it from suckling, but it still has the comfort of it's mothers company. Around a week later, the tag is removed as the calf is weaned. They seem to cope with loosing their mother far better. They don't loose mother and milk on the same day. The video below explains the science.

 

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Reared without antibiotics - The start of communication

I’m Aled Rhys Davies, the Managing Director of Pruex Ltd, and today am delighted to be cooking breakfast using a very special type of bacon. The Spoilt Pig brand is the first I know of, distributed by retailers, to claim the status of “Reared without Antibiotics”. The pigs used are kept to a high welfare standard with the aim of preventing infections and illness, so that the need to treat sick animals with antibiotics if the infection is bacterial is negated. Any animal that is treated with antibiotics at any stage of its life is marketed under a different brand. The Spoilt Pig brand therefore offers consumers choice in their purchases.

Within the United Kingdom, if an animal is sick as a result of a bacterial infection, then from a welfare and often a legal point of view, it is rightly treated with an antibiotic to stop it from suffering. The food chain is safe from Antibiotic residues due to strict testing protocols and withdrawal periods for antibiotic treated meat.

Todays fare includes, pork sausages, a fried egg, fried bread and tomatoes. Whilst the sausages might be from animals treated with antibiotics, I’m happy to eat them, as there won’t be antibiotic residues in them nor the egg to cause me any trouble. There is more chance of contracting infective bacteria, resistant or not to antibiotics, from raw meat than from cooked.

The reason I’m delighted to use the Spoilt Pig brand is that it’s a tangible start in the process of communicating to consumers the great work done in agriculture to limit Anti Microbial Resistance. The farms that supply pigs for other brands also work hard to ensure that their animals are not infected by disease causing bacteria. They go to great lengths to ensure the water their animals drink is clean of infective bacteria, their animals are well sheltered outside, or are housed in clean, spacious, well ventilated accommodation, and dedicate a large amount of time and effort towards ensuring their animals remain healthy. There is no chance of securing financial prosperity whilst farming sick animals. Agriculture as an industry needs to build on the example set by the Spoilt Pig brand, and look to further communicate good practice in husbandry and hygiene to consumers. Pruex look forward to helping in the process.

A note to Consumers:

  • Giving sick animals that are infected with disease causing bacteria an antibiotic is good. It constitutes Prudent as opposed to Excessive antibiotic use. It is Pruex.
  • Giving sick animals that are infected with a virus an antibiotic in not good. It is not Prudent use. It is not Pruex.
  • To limit Anti Microbial Resistance, that is, bacteria that are resistant to our medicines and cleaners, we all have to do our bit. We are all in this together, rich, poor, young, old, weak, strong, animals, humans.

Action for consumers:

  • If you have a sore throat, don't insist on an antibiotic from your doctor. He or she might inform you that your infection is caused by a virus. If they say it's bacterial, then use the antibiotic they prescribe. You will be Pruex.

 

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Are we infecting our cows every time we milk?

Are we infecting our cows every time we milk?


Somatic Cell Counts per ml of milk indicate an immune response to an infection. Yet the inside of the udder is supposed to be a sterile environment. So, does a cow with 50,000 cells per ml of milk really have a low cell count? Should we be striving for zero cell counts per ml?
Work done by Pruex shows that cows teats maintain a high level of mastitis causing bacteria on their surfaces throughout the milking process regardless of teat preparation protocol or wether or not the cows are milked by robot, parlour, or if the apparatus have a back flush system or not. The teats pre preparation for milking are not clean of infective bacteria even though they have had a chemical disinfectant applied post the previous milking. Mastitis causing bacteria are present on the teats when the process of milking takes place, when the teat is surrounded by nice warm milk. The ultimate result is the need for antibiotics to treat the resulting clinical cases of mastitis.


Pruex work with farmers to evaluate the level of potential for infection their teat cleaning protocols produce. By knowing where in the process the cows are getting infected, farmers can use evidence to form prudent as opposed to excessive antibiotic use strategies for their cows. In other words, they can work out the best way to limit the risk of infection by bacteria of their cows' udders during the process of milking.
All too often we assume that the cows teats are clean because we use disinfectant teat dips or sprays. If you want to check this assumption out on your farm, please contact us. Info@pruex.co.uk

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Does a Dairy farmer need a cattle crush?

Does a Dairy farmer need a cattle crush?

During evening milking in a Sussex herringbone parlour, I realised the true value of good health. I was there to collect some milk samples direct from the cows’ udders prior to any potential contamination from the milking equipment. These samples would enable the identification by on-farm culturing of the bacteria that was causing mastitis on that unit. With one broken, and a second damaged finger on my dominant right hand, I became totally reliant on the cooperation of the milking staff for collection of the samples I needed. I asked myself the question, do dairy farmers buy cattle crushes to protect themselves from being hurt by handling cattle or is there another reason?

I could imagine a beef farmer with large numbers of nearly feral cattle, wild, un-handled and at best extremely temperamental generating the need for some pretty heavy duty handling equipment. In years past, only the youngstock needed regular handling, with the administration of medicinal treatments of adult cattle being a single occurrence probably causing a headache for the stockman one day per annum. TB testing however changes everything by, depending on the severity of the problem in the area, necessitating the regular handling of adult cattle, youngstock and calves several times a year.

Delving into the issue, I was shocked to find the sheer scale of the expense that goes into the process of TB testing.  I heard of scenarios where, on dairy farms that were having to test several times a year, up to five men were required for eight hours to enable the vet to TB test 600 cattle.  Who will pay for this extremity of service post Brexit? I haven’t had an answer yet.

When you consider that a mower, a piece of equipment a farmer uses probably two or three days a year, costs between £8,000 and £12,000, a hydraulic powered squeeze crush with neck stretching head gate that enables efficient handling of cattle seems like a bargain if it cuts the number of people needed for TB testing, or drastically cuts the time taken to conduct the testing process.

I spoke to Edward and Catriona Penty of American Squeeze Crush Systems Ltd. Since 2004 they have been importing Pearson squeeze crush from America, and, having adapted its design to suit the needs of European and specifically the United Kingdom farmer went on to design and produce their own hydraulic squeeze crush, the “Raging Bull” product range that includes a neck stretching head gate. This crush is claimed to optimize the time needed for TB testing to the limiting factor, namely the speed of the vet. What is more impressive in my opinion is the way the crush cuts the amount of labour needed.

The comments from customers make impressive reading.  They claim that they can do several hundred with one person delivering cattle as quick as the vet can work. A big statement, I understood how this can be achievable as soon as I saw the design. It’s a wide crush. Viewing it with empathy for cows, it looks safe enough to travel through. What I like is that the head gate moves inwards behind the animals’ peripheral vision. Catching a wild beast charging through is easy, it’s the timid beast that won’t push through that take time and staff effort to engage for testing. The hydraulic head gate pulls them in. No waste of time, hollering, taunting, pushing or forcing cattle, just a calm extension of hydraulic pressure delivering cattle quietly, easily and in the right position for testing.

One comment in particular made me laugh. A farmer grazing 850 extremely free range Angus cattle on sand dunes and marshland stated that he had TB tested them all within six hours and the only thing the crush couldn’t do was pour him a cold beer at the end of the day. That is asking a lot. Nearly as much as we did at home as I was growing up, expecting to stay safe whilst trying to dose Charolais cattle between a gate and the hedge. You live and learn!

 

 

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Is there more value than just forage in a grassy field?

Is there more value than just forage in a grassy field?

Since conducting a Nuffield Farming Scholarship looking at "Alternatives to Antibiotics in  Agriculture" I've come to realise that fields are more than a source of forage for livestock. They are a maternity ward, a crèche, a toilet, a restaurant, a pharmacy and a bed. The balance of these variables can affect output. If we maintain stocking rates that pollute grazing with faeces then the value of feed intake is compromised. We expect our animals to maintain a high degree of health whilst at pasture and spend a considerable amount of hard earned cash purchasing and administering animal health products to maintain a level of acceptable output from our livestock assets. We however are often the cause of the need for these products. Our husbandry can upset the balance resulting in sick animals.
We concentrate nutrients out of balance. We graze animals on crops of red clover, we supplement their feed with fodder beet and high polyunsaturated fat content rye grass silage or out winter on kale and then wonder why our cows hold on to their afterbirth. These crops contain goitrogens that inhibit iodine uptake by the thyroid gland. Getting iodine into these cows to address the balance can be done in many ways. Feeding kelp seems to be a great way of doing so. There are other ways, but we need to know that a balance must be achieved to maintain healthy animals.


Stocking rate increases have also upset the balance of our maternity wards. Intensification and increased numbers of animals per hectare has seen us as farmers calving, lambing, farrowing and hatching indoors, or under increased pressure in dedicated paddocks outside. As a result, animals such as calves land on surfaces infested by a cocktail of some pretty infective bacteria. A soup of wet muck covered over by a thin layer of supposedly clean straw. Their umbilical cords would not be subjected to such infestation in the wild. Yes, there would probably be e.coli pasteurella, klebsiella and other infective bacteria in a natural field environment, but these would be out numbered by non-infective bacteria. From the moment these calves injest colostrum, it take three days for their adaptive immunity to develop. This is the type of defence that protects them from bacterial infections. In my discussions with dairy farmers, I've learned that calf scour is considered normal. They have the same number of calving pens for four hundred cows as they did when they had one hundred.

 


Another variable out of balance is the amount of work done on farm compared to the financial returns achieved. We seem, as an industry, to be busy increasing the numbers of animals we keep with less and less staff and for less return per unit of production. The big stress escalator being the dreaded occurrence of disease outbreak.
One of the big things I learned on my Nuffield was that the health of the young animal determines it's lifetime production output. Sick smolt salmon never grow as well when they get to the sea cages, piglets that scour struggle to finish with the rest of the batch, sick lambs struggle to survive. The animal health products we buy such as antibiotics limit the effect of an infection. It seem to me that we need to start working on limiting the infection from taking hold in the first place. To do so, we have to generate evidence as to what we have out of balance.

 

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And exactly what does a clean calving pen look like?

And exactly what does a clean calving pen look like?

And exactly what does a clean calving pen look like?

During and since completing my Nuffield study entitled “Alternatives to Antibiotics in Agriculture”, I identified that husbandry practices on livestock farms, ruminant and monogastric, increase stress and infective bacterial challenge on livestock without farmers realising so. I found that farmers, when they can see and understand a problem, are very good at fixing those issues. They are not so good when it comes to problems they can’t see or understand. Farmers don’t see dead animals as a result of antibiotic resistance; they see dead or sick animals due to, for example, E.coli infections.

In my attempt to understand the effect of Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR) within agriculture, I struggled to understand:

  • Why broiler chicken farmers in Australia, America and Canada got equal or better feed conversion ratio’s and less mortality than we do in the United Kingdom (UK), even though they only clean and disinfect their sheds once a year, whilst we clean and disinfect after every crop, every 39 to 43 days? They would place a new crop of chicks onto the previous crops’ dirty litter. We would place new chicks in clean disinfected freshly littered sheds.
  • Why pigs farrowing in old, at first sight dirty, farrowing buildings had healthy piglets, whilst brand new setups where piglets are born into almost sterile conditions had mortality rates of up to 25%?
  • Why dairy cows are susceptible to mastitis infections whilst beef cows aren’t?
  • Why lambs born inside, in clean and disinfected sheds get infections and scour whilst lambs born outside in muddy fields don’t?
  • Why calves born in nice warm disinfected sheds with clean bedding get bacterial infections that cause scour whilst those that calve outside in the rain, wind and on muddy grass don’t.

By studying both diagnostic tools for agricultural use and types of bacterial infections of livestock, I realised that AMR in agriculture is as much of an issue in terms of Biocides as Antibiotics. In other words, bacteria have developed strategies to cope with disinfectant use on farm to as well as antibiotic use. As farmers we seem to be unaware of this scenario.

 

Animals don’t live in sterile conditions; neither should we keep them in conditions conducive to bacterial infections. There is an assumption within agriculture that when we use disinfectants, we reduce the bacterial challenge our animals face. But, this is an assumption that is NOT based on evidence. My Nuffield study led me to the conclusion that if we are to develop strategies on farm that allow for prudent use of antibiotics, then we have to generate evidence of what bugs are actually causing the infective issues we are trying to resolve. Not all bacteria that cause infections in our animals can be treated with antibiotics. I was amazed to find that of the fifteen common mastitis causing micro-organisms’ in dairy cows, only four can be treated effectively by antibiotics. When our dairy farmers detect clinical mastitis, the first call to action is often to treat the animal with an antibiotic.  If the bacteria causing the infection can’t be destroyed by the said antibiotic anyway, the farmer is wasting time and money and increases the risk of AMR by treating.

The assumption that surfaces are clean post disinfection needs challenging. What I have found, based on evidence generated on farm, is that, post disinfection; concentrations of disease causing bacterial colonies have intensified and proliferated on the surfaces that come into contact with our livestock and farmers / farm workers. So, for example, piglets in disinfected farrowing buildings are being born onto surfaces where there are concentrations of disease causing bacteria three days before the immunoglobulins in the sows colostrum can build an antibody mediated immune defence within the piglet to fight bacterial infections. This happens either because bacterial colonies present on the surfaces have become resistant to the disinfectant, or, due to biofilms protecting these bacteria from the disinfectant. New born calves, lambs, chicks, even smolt fish all face the same fate when surfaces become dominated by disease causing bacteria. The need for antibiotic treatment is fuelled by the disease causing bacterial infections that take hold prior to the formation of the animals antibody mediated immune defence.

By using on farm diagnostic tools, farmers are able to develop strategies based on them being able to visualise the root cause of their infection problems. They can see which bacteria are infecting their animals. They can decide, quickly, based on veterinary protocol, if they should treat the animal with an antibiotic or not based on evidence. They can make an informed decision, based on evidence, as to the efficacy of their hygiene protocols in reducing the bacterial loading and hence stress on their animals. Farmers however don’t tend to be microbiologists. They need simple tools to enable them to generate the information they need to limit bacterial infection stress on their animals.

 

Note:

Image1.

Piglets born onto slats with a high concentration of infective bacteria

 

Image 2.

Cow close to calving. High concentrations of infective bacteria found in bedding sand.

 

 By Aled Rhys Davies

 

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Colostrum - Is it under valued?

Knowing which cows have beaten the bugs on our farms is "half the battle". Their colostrum is "Gold Dust" in building the next generations' immunity. Using Pruex Dry Off Plates, we can find out which quarter has a bacterial infection and build a colostrum strategy from there.

Managing colostrum can be tricky. Colostrostart is an excellent freeze and thaw system that makes the whole process easier.

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Calving and weaning, how can we help?

Calving and weaning, how can we help?

During my travels as a Nuffield Scholar, I visited three continents researching my topic, “Alternatives to Antibiotics in Agriculture”. I looked at aquaculture, (Fish Farming), Laying hens, Broiler chickens, Pig production, Dairy, Beef and Lamb production in an attempt to find good practice and to see if one sector had transferable skills that could benefit another in terms of limiting the need for antibiotics.

Regardless of country, farming method adopted, either high or low input, determination of farmer to succeed, or age of farmer, there was a consistent theme that flowed through my investigations. The healthier an animal was in its early life, the more production would follow. In other words, sick young stock had inhibited production capabilities for the rest of their lives.

I’d always wanted to travel to Tasmania, I don’t know why, a century earlier; I’d have wanted to avoid the place at all costs. What a beautiful place though. A mixture of native bush, magical coastline, emerald green grazing and bright blue sky, made this island feel special. The warnings of icy roads at every hair pinned corner, and there were a few, made me realize how close to the South Pole I actually was. My destination was a large salmon Hatchery owned by Huon Salmon. Upon leaving the tarmac road, I followed a dirt track for around ten miles and then I saw it, a purpose built fish hatchery nestling in the valley that lay ahead, a mixture of enormous buildings and silos, surrounded by fresh water lakes. I’d prepared myself for scale, but this place looked from a distance to be the same size as Aberystwyth. What a place! I got a great welcome, took photos, asked questions and marveled at what I saw.

The following morning, I was in the Capital City of Hobart, on the top floor of the tallest skyscraper on the island, aware of the depth and quality of the carpet under my feet, and very grateful for the early morning, top quality coffee on offer. I was meeting Huon Salmons’ veterinary team. Based on my tour of their hatchery I had a long list of questions prepared for them. The answers I got were simple and really focused my mind. The stronger and more disease free they could keep their fish at hatchery, the better they would perform once in the finishing stages in the sea cages where they are fattened for market.

I got a similar answer when studying pig and poultry. Management of youngstock that reduces stress from disease was often the difference between profit or less profit. In these sectors, the attention to detail in the animals early life was vital to crop viability.

 

 I compared this to the ruminant sectors, an area I knew more about. It seemed to me that we accept that lambs and calves get scour within a fortnight of birth, and that there is a dip in production at or around weaning.

In Alberta, Canada, the issue of youngstock disease became apparent as an issue for beef farmers. One of the feed lots I visited supplied McDonalds, and reared 35,000 head of beef annually. They had 28,000 cattle on site at any one time. The owner quoted his biggest issue as being sourcing new cattle. If he could get a regular supply from suckler cow units he was happy. He didn’t want beef from the dairy herd as the stress those calves endured in their early life determined their production within his feed lot. He didn’t want low performers. He needed uniform production, he didn’t want runts at any cost.

 

 He needed a great deal of feed and somewhere to put it. It was easy to spot his grain store.

 

What I learned from looking at the issue of youngstock health during my Nuffield travels is that we must not assume that our calves are going to be ill around a fortnight post calving. Calving pen hygiene is paramount. If our calves are born onto surfaces that are infected by disease causing bacteria three days before their immune system is built, then yes, they will likley scour. Ask yourself the question, Are my calves healthy in the first week of their lives? If the answer is yes, then good. If the answer is no, then rather than keeping on administring antibiotics to your sick calves, you need to change something. Start by analysing the cleanlines of where the calf was born.

Weaning can aso knock a calfs production. In Canada I became aware of a very simple system that enabled a two stage weaning. Calves at weaning were found to become stressed at loosing both access to milk and their mothers. To prevent this stress, a simple plastic nose tag is fitted to a calf’s nose at weaning. It prevents the calf getting milk, but it still has the comfort of being with it’s mother. A weak later, the calves can be weaned from their mothers with little stress. The company that produce the QuietWean tags report that:

  • Producers have found that QuietWean nose tags reduce “shipping fever” and respiratory infections 
    • Less need for antibiotics
  • Calves weaned using QuietWean spend 25% more time eating, 95% less time bawling and pace up to 15 miles less than traditional weaning!
  • QuietWean tags can be used again and again, making them very economical

Successful, low-stress weaning can be accomplished in only 4 – 7 days

It appears to me that with focus on what we do every day we can improve productivity in our beef production by limiting stress on our youngstock. In the past we’ve been ready to apply an antibiotic to fix our problems. It’s time we address our focus.

My Nuffield experience allowed me to understand the value of focus.

 

 One of our cockerels at home decided that I was a threat when I attempted to feed him and his hens as a boy. From the time of his attack to my Nuffield travels, I had a phobia of all things feathered. No, more!

The Nuffield Farming Scholarship Trust rewards individuals in agriculture and rural industries with opportunities to travel, broaden horizons and advance industry knowledge. For more information try www.nuffieldscholar.org

 

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Beware - Anti Microbial Resistance is here!

Beware - Anti Microbial Resistance is here!

Antibiotic resistance is a problem created in the main by human misuse of antibiotics. It's being dressed up as an issue born from agriculture. Whilst agriculture is not blameless, it is not the main cause of the problem. We humans are to blame. As consumers we need to take responsibility for our actions. We have insisted that doctors give us antibiotics for a sore throat without knowing if the route cause is indeed bacterial or viral. We have started taking a course of antibiotics when we have been ill, but once we felt better, neglected to finish the course. We have demanded cheap food, and have forgot to reward good farmers for producing clean food.

If you need to know more about Anti Microbial Resistance, read this article.

If you want to do something about the situation, we need to talk.

 

Aled Rhys Davies

 

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A Welsh Drover back in London

From around the time of the Norman Conquest to the end of the 19th 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 19th 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.Rygbi

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,

London Bridgeas 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.

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