Some of the country's leading livestock hauliers say their industry is facing a crisis on a number of fronts. The most significant is the difficulty in finding suitable drivers from home or abroad.
The Road Haulage Association has indicated there is a shortage of 45,000 suitably qualified HGV licence holders in the country - but livestock haulage is specialised work and not everyone can drive a livestock transporter. Farmers and hauliers have to be trained and pass tests to prove that they are competent. That has led to a shortage of qualified drivers, with the average age of livestock hauliers now reckoned to be 55.
Despite high salaries, in some cases in excess of £40,000 a year to key men, more are leaving the industry than joining. They are being enticed to other haulage jobs by competitive salaries and a generally cleaner environment with non-livestock haulage, and none of the stress attached to moving livestock over long distances and trying to meet impossible timetables.
Livestock hauliers are required to observe Working Time Directive (WTD) rules, which can be hard to do when working with markets and animals. Livestock hauliers can only drive a maximum of 90 hours in a fortnight, or run the risk of hefty fines. During the hectic autumn sale season there aren't enough livestock hauliers to move all the animals in the limited number of driving hours they are allowed.
Many drivers start their day at 7am or earlier to fetch their first batch of animals to be taken to market. Once unloaded, they have to wash out their lorry and then wait for their return load to be sold and assembled for loading. That may not happen until mid-afternoon or later, so large markets put a strain on the system, leaving some animals staying overnight in the market.
It is important that livestock lorries are thoroughly washed out and disinfected between loads in order to prevent the spread of disease. Foot and Mouth Disease taught us all about the importance of bio-security.
To give an example of how easily diseases can spread, scientists have warned that the highly virulent Asian-American strain of porcine epidemic virus (PEDv) could be spreading between countries on contaminated feed bags.
The virus, which is fatal to young pigs, can survive for weeks on feed bags and in feed being shipped around the world, said researchers investigating how the virus spread from China to the US. While they were unable to identify exactly how it was likely to have entered the US, they believe it was probably the bulk bags used to transfer pig-feed and soy beans.
The National Pig Association (NPA) has recently complained that lorry washing facilities at certain abattoirs south of the border can best be described as inadequate. They cite the example of a large abattoir that had to send dirty lorries elsewhere to be washed out after unloading because its facilities were not working.
Livestock hauliers also regularly risk injury when working with animals in inadequate loading facilities. Too often the loading pen is constructed at the last minute from old gates tied with string. Trying to get cattle weighing close on 500kg to scramble up a steep ramp into a lorry from a Heath Robinson designed loading pen can lead to being kicked or knocked down as the animals turn and try to jump over the gates or bales.
It's much the same with pigs which are difficult to drive and have a mind of their own. Unlike cattle or sheep which are relatively easily herded together and driven, pigs are more likely to charge straight at you and bowl you over. I suppose that's where the phrase "pig headed" comes from.
Pigs are best driven forward using a wooden board about a metre-square that forms a solid barrier preventing them spying escape routes.
A good number of livestock farmers need to give greater thought to designing and installing loading bays - and where they are already in place, making sure they can safely facilitate swift loading at all hours of the day and night. Properly designed, permanent loading bays will also cut down on the number of hours lorries are kept waiting while straw bales, gates and sheets of tin are moved round various farmyards before loading can even start.
To avert a crisis, there needs to be improvements in the day-to-day life of livestock lorry drivers that encourages new employees to join the industry.
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