IT'S AN age-old problem, but it looks like 'fixing' of dairy cattle for showing could be on the run due to pressure from milk buyers.

But what has essentially changed the 'stockman's art' in recent times is that newer products and technologies are pushing cows beyond their limit in terms of welfare.

That art of showmanship – and it is an art – has been bred into generations of Scottish cattlemen. Indeed, there have been instances of disqualifications and banishment from major shows since livestock showing began.

However, it seems this craft is in danger of being turned into a 'dark art', much of which is carried out behind screens and closed doors and has necessitated a new breed of 'fixer' – or more colloquially, a 'fitter'.

Quite a few of the current breed of show fitters are either imported from North America or learnt the secrets there. What we do not need over here, though, is the rumoured preference for injecting show cows with bovine somatotropin (commonly known as BST).

While this is legally and widely used in North America, it has never been allowed to be used in Europe. Basically, it is a booster hormone which is used to escalate the cow's ability to produce milk, thus 'inflating' the cow's udder and milk veins.

Let us hope that this illegal hormone is never used in the UK. If it were ever found out that it was being used, then a scare story in the popular press would result in a cataclysmic fall in milk consumption.

The words 'hormone' and 'milk' do not sit comfortably together.

Testing times for bovine TB

THE CALL by former NFUS president, Nigel Miller, to be vigilant with regard to bovine tuberculosis (TB) is laudible.

As a vet, he knows the consequences of an outbreak in any herd of cattle. However, as a vet, he should also appreciate that even though the current skin test for livestock is still viewed as the best available, it is high time that a more definitive and quicker test is developed.

Too many good cattle have been consigned to the burner as 'reactors' south of the Border and in Ireland, when subsequent testing has revealed that they did not, in fact, have the disease. This is one area where veterinary science has not kept up with the times – the skin test canm be traced back to the bad old days of the 1940s and '50s. Government investment in such a test would be paid back many times by compensation savings.