Farming ground on this side of the Wirral peninsula sits in an awkward position administratively, with holdings that feel like Wirral farms but fall under Cheshire for most regulatory purposes. That distinction has real consequences for anyone dealing with a dead animal, particularly where bovine tuberculosis is involved. Martlands provides fallen stock and ABP collection as a DEFRA approved processing and sampling facility, and Willaston fallen stock collection is handled on the same rounds that serve the dairy and beef holdings running from Neston across towards Hooton and down the Dee shore. Before anything else, it is worth being clear which Willaston you are looking at, because there are two in the region and they are forty miles apart.
Two Willastons and Why the Distinction Matters
The Willaston covered here is the village between Neston and Hooton on the Wirral peninsula, in the CH64 postcode area, close to the Wirral Way and the old Hadlow Road line. There is a second Willaston near Nantwich in south Cheshire, in the CW5 area, sitting in a very different farming landscape of large dairy units on the Cheshire plain. We collect from both, but if you are booking by village name alone it is worth adding the postcode, because sending a wagon to the wrong Willaston costs a day that a keeper working to a 24 hour expectation does not have to spare.
The Duty That Sits With the Keeper
Under the Animal By-Products (Enforcement) (England) Regulations 2013, fallen stock must be collected without undue delay, which is understood in practice as arranging collection within 24 hours of finding the animal. Burial and burning on the holding have been unlawful throughout the United Kingdom since 2003. The duty falls on whoever is keeping the animal at the time of death, which on rented or shared grazing is not always the same person as the landowner, and is a point worth settling in writing before it becomes an argument. Our farm and fallen stock collection service produces the documentation that shows who arranged what.
Cattle Casualties in the Cheshire Edge Area
Cheshire falls within the Edge Area for bovine tuberculosis in England, which means herds here are subject to more frequent surveillance testing than herds in the Low Risk Area and carry a realistic prospect of a breakdown at some point. For a Willaston dairy or beef unit that changes the fallen stock picture in a specific way. Animals that die or are euthanised on a holding under restriction still have to leave lawfully, and the collection has to be arranged in a manner consistent with the movement restrictions APHA has placed on the herd. This is not a reason to delay the call, it is a reason to make it early and say plainly that the holding is under restriction. Our guidance on fallen stock collection during a bovine TB breakdown covers what changes and what does not.
Fallen Cattle Over 48 Months and TSE Sampling
Any bovine over 48 months old that dies on the holding requires transmissible spongiform encephalopathy sampling before disposal. Martlands is a DEFRA approved sampling centre and carries out the brain stem sampling as part of the collection, so the animal is not handled twice and the keeper is not left arranging a separate step. On holdings running older suckler cows around Raby, Thornton Hough and Puddington this comes up more often than it does on a young dairy herd, and it is the part of the process most frequently overlooked until it happens for the first time.
Why Fallen Ruminants Are Category 1 Material
Fallen cattle and sheep are classified as Category 1 animal by-product on specified risk material grounds. That is the most tightly controlled of the three categories, permitting only rendering and incineration and forbidding mixing with lower category material in transit. Our Category 1 ABP collection operates under Animal By-Products Licence No APB/CCN21/373/8002, with Waste Carrier Licence CB/QE5406MT and Site Licence EAWML/100236. Where an animal has been euthanised with barbiturates by a veterinary surgeon, the carcass is Category 1 for that reason as well, which applies to horses and companion animals as much as to farm livestock and should always be mentioned at booking.
Access, Footpaths and the Wirral Way
Holdings around Willaston are crossed by well used public rights of way, and the Wirral Way brings walkers and riders along the old railway line in numbers through most of the year. A carcass lying in a field beside a busy path is a visible problem long before it is a regulatory one, and it generates complaints to the local authority far more quickly than the same animal lying on a fell would. Removing it promptly is the straightforward answer, and giving the collection team a clear field access point rather than a route that crosses the path itself makes the job quicker for everybody. Ground here is generally accessible, but the low lying land towards the Dee marshes at Burton and Parkgate can be soft after sustained rain, and it helps to say so when you call.
Rounds Covering the Peninsula and the County
Willaston is served on the same routes as holdings booked under Wirral fallen stock collection and the wider Cheshire fallen stock collection service. Neighbouring ground is covered by the same rounds that reach fallen stock collection Neston and further up the peninsula towards Bebington fallen stock collection. The practical effect is that a single animal on a small Willaston holding does not require a dedicated journey, which is the reason smaller keepers here are worth serving properly rather than being told to wait for a full load.
The Records an Inspector Will Ask For
Every collection produces a Commercial Document recording the material taken, the date, the holding it came from and the licence it moved under. That document is what connects a death entered in the herd or flock register with the animal physically leaving the farm, and it is the first thing requested at a Red Tractor assessment or by a local authority officer following up a complaint. Cattle deaths must also be notified to the British Cattle Movement Service, and holding the two records together means they corroborate one another rather than sitting in separate places.
Farms that come unstuck at inspection are rarely farms that did something unlawful. They are usually farms that did everything correctly and cannot produce the evidence a year later. Bookings placed through the KoLeCt system leave a consistent record, and NFSCO membership means holdings already registered with the national scheme can work through the arrangement they know rather than setting up something new.
Arranging a Collection
Call 01704 776977 to book a collection or to discuss how the service would work on your holding before you need it. Have the postcode ready, along with the species, an approximate age for any bovine animal, whether the herd is under any APHA restriction, and where a vehicle can reach. If you would prefer to make the arrangement in writing, you can contact us and we will respond. Setting this up while the yard is quiet is considerably easier than working it out for the first time with a dead cow in a field and the clock already running.
