Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 26, 1994 TAG: 9405260081
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FLOYD LENGTH: Medium
Although he can think of no worse fate for a cattle farmer, Allen Harman says he's ready to watch his herd of nearly 300 cattle be slaughtered or "depopulated" to make sure tuberculosis doesn't spread - and to make sure Virginia keeps the TB-free status that speeds cattle transactions among states.
"If our cattle have it, they need to be destroyed," said Harman, working Wednesday at the farm supply store he and his father run in Floyd. "Whatever the government says to do, we're doing."
The herd has been quarantined for a month while the state tests it for tuberculosis. It has not yet been proven that the herd, which grazes on a 550-acre farm in the southern part of the county, definitely has TB.
The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, in tracing a TB-infected carcass discovered at a Pennsylvania meat-packing plant to its possible sources, tested Harman's cattle, eight of which had a positive reaction. Cultures are being grown to positively identify the cause of TB-like lesions found on some of the cattle. The results are due next month.
Harman is ready for the worst.
"The whole herd's going. It's gone," said Harman, who had built up the herd since he and his father bought back land in 1972 that earlier had belonged to his grandfather and to his grandfather's father.
If that happens, Harman said, it'll hurt, but the family operation won't be wiped out. "It's a bad situation, but it's something that you go through. If it happened [in 1972], we would've probably lost the farm. If it had to come, right now is not too bad a time."
"We're not going to lose the farm. We're going to be out of the cow-calf business," Harman said. "How long that will last, I don't know."
If the herd has to be destroyed, the government has said it will pay him $750 a head for each infected animal and $450 plus some return on the meat for each uninfected head. But Harman is unsure if those prices will hold true, and even so he figures the cattle - Angus, Charolais and mixed-breed - are worth $800 to $1,200 a head.
"I don't really know what I'll get for the cows," he said.
The entire herd will have to be destroyed for Virginia to keep its status as TB-free, which allows farmers to bypass costly, time-consuming tests and paperwork for cattle shipped out of state.
Like others who spoke for him before the agriculture department released his name Wednesday in response to a Freedom of Information request, Harman portrayed himself as a victim of circumstance.
"We just haven't done anything wrong. I didn't know we had it," Harman said.
Dr. A.M. Irwin, a veterinarian with the Wytheville Regional Regulatory Laboratory of the state veterinarian's office, confirmed that Harman's records indicate he hadn't bought cattle out of state since 1986, and said, "this could've, unfortunately, happened to any number of individuals.
"It's no stigma on his part. It's just the fall of the cards - too bad."
If the herd must be destroyed, Harman said he's not sure what he'll do to keep the farming operation going. He's uncertain what the state and federal government will require of him in the future regarding TB testing. He may graze feeder cattle, but it's doubtful he'll have cows and calves.
"It took us 26 years to get this herd together," he said, referring to himself and his father, C.W. Harman, 76. "To do something all your life, and then not possibly be able to do it again ... I hate it for him more than for myself.
"When you have cattle, you just get attached to them. It's not going to be really easy."
by CNB