Farming Diary inserts including Gumboro disease of chickens, and set aside system in Germany

Inserts for Anglia Television's Anglia Diary, including Gumboro disease and set-aside.

Four inserts for Anglia Television’s Farming Diary. We begin with a short interview with poultry farmer Ian Cannon. At his farm Cannon bemoans colossal deaths of his chickens due to Gumboro disease. Up to one hundred and fifty chicks die during the day and three hundred at night. Cannon describes the effects of this outbreak as “six months work for nothing.” From his farm in Einbeck, Germany, Professor Jürgen Rimpau is interviewed by David Richardson. Rimpau rents the majority of his land from the German government. Rimpau displays the drill he has developed for planting seeds, cereals and rape. Shots of the seed box on the front of the tractor are followed by shots of the rotary cultivator. Rimpau has committed 20% of his land to set aside for 5 years. He describes the rationale by means of “bodenpunkte” a German system for gauging soil quality from 1-100 points. Rimpau is setting aside land which is 28-35 points, and the land he is cropping is more fertile. With this comes a decrease in fixed costs and an increase in soil quality. Richardson interviews Rimpau from the farmer’s car. The men arrive at fields with planted seeds and a mixture of grass and clover then onto a barren field with dead grass and stones. The third insert returns to Ian Cannon at his poultry farm. In the rearing-shed a chick infected with Gumboro is clearly ailing. Gannon describes the symptoms of the disease and the extreme rate of mortality. Cannon enters his local veterinary surgery in Colchester. Howard Hellig runs the practice specialising in poultry. Using chick carcasses, Hellig demonstrates the symptoms of Gumboro disease. Back at the farm more infected chicks attempt to feed. Hellig outlines the government’s decision to run slow checks on the available vaccine, and believes they will be open to criticism if the situation remains the same. If untreated, he believes the whole of the UK will be infected within two months. The final brief insert is footage of several people picking grapes from vines and emptying them into buckets.

Featured Buildings

Watercress Farm

Keywords

Farming; Agriculture; Disease; Poultry

Other Places

Einbeck, Germany

Background Information

Infectious bursal disease, IBD (also known as Gumboro disease, infectious bursitis and infectious avian nephrosis) is a highly contagious disease of young chickens caused by infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV), characterized by immunosuppression and mortality generally at 3 to 6 weeks of age. The disease was first discovered in Gumboro, Delaware in 1962. Wikipedia.