Sheep
Gill McGarrell marking her
flock with the TecTracer
marking system
CRAVEN FARMER JOINS CAMPAIGN
TO STAMP OUT SHEEP RUSTLING
» » A BARNOLDSWICK FARMER
is the first in the Craven area to
sign up to a new crime fighting
initiative aimed at stemming the
rising tide of livestock thefts.
Gill McGarrell - a victim
of rural crime herself - has
joined Operation Bo Peep!, a
scheme spearheaded by former
senior police detective, John
Minary, which centres around
sheep being “protected” by a
revolutionary marking system.
Together with signs
advertising the TecTracer
identification process
positioned around farm
buildings and fields - combined
with an e-alert early warning
system linked to the police,
farms, abattoirs and auction
houses – Mr Minary and his
team believe these will be such
a deterrent as to render the
animals virtually theft proof.
TecTracer has been
developed by York-based
Trace-in-Metal, which pioneered
a ground-breaking marking
system to protect church roofs
from lead thieves, and has now
adapted its use for safeguarding
livestock, in particular sheep.
Following the successful
completion of a trial at hill farm
near Whitby, the TecTracer
team, with the backing of North
Yorkshire Police, are rolling out
Operation Bo Peep! Region-
wide.
Whilst Trace-in-Metal uses
ballistics to fire thousands of
microdots into metal sheets
“marking” them with a unique
identifying code, TecTracer uses
raddles to ingrain thousands of
coded markers into the sheep’s
fleece.
Once attached to the animal’s
coat, it is extremely easy to
identify any sheep that has
been TecTracer-marked, and
from which farm it originated.
According to the NFU Mutual
Rural Crime Report 2016,
livestock rustling remains a huge
problem, with costs stubbornly
high in Northern Ireland and the
North East and South West of
England. At a total cost to the UK
of £2.9 million, 70 per cent came
from these three regions alone.
Insurance claims showed that
in Yorkshire alone the cost of
rural crime last year was £3.6m,
£100,000 more than in 2015.
76 Autumn 2017 www.farmers-mart.co.uk
And while in 2015 equine
crime was down by a quarter,
the cost of livestock theft has
risen by seven per cent.
Last month alone 60 lambs
were taken from the Lofthouse
area, while 10 were stolen
from a farm near Harrogate, at
Beckwithshaw.
SHEEP RUSTLING ‘A
HELL OF A PROBLEM’
One sheep farmer from
Barnoldswick was recently
quoted as saying that sheep
rustling was a “hellish problem”.
TecTracer director, John
Minary said: “TecTracer was only
officially launched a month ago,
but the response to it has been
phenomenal.
“We have been working
closely with North Yorkshire
Police’s Rural Taskforce and the
farming community during our
pilot scheme, and we are now
being contacted by farmers
across the region eager to
learn more about TecTracer and
Operation Bo Peep!
“Once the TecTracer
microdots have been applied to
a fleece, the unique identifying
numbers are then uploaded to a
database.
“And, if an animal is stolen,
our early warning system then
swings into action alerting the
police, other farms, abattoirs and
livestock auctions.”
Mrs McGarrell said: “Sheep
theft is a constant worry and, as
the thieves become more brazen
and resourceful, we need to
ensure we have the weapons in
our armoury to fight back!
“We have been the victims of
sheep theft ourselves, and by
having our sheep protected by
TecTracer, we believe it will make
would-be thieves think twice
before contemplating stealing
them.”
Mr Minary added: “The overall
intention of Operation Bo Peep!
is to make North Yorkshire a
sheep theft free zone.
“It will provide reassurance
to rural communities and, by
imposing a preventative ‘cocoon’
around farms and moorland,
and it will create a deterrent
to organised and opportunist
criminals.”
https://www.tectracer.com/