Crosby fallen stock collection rarely looks like the farming most people picture, and that is precisely why the legal duty catches keepers out here. A pony paddock behind a house in Thornton, a dozen ewes on rented ground at Little Crosby and a suckler herd turned out on the coastal plain all sit under exactly the same regulations, and every one of them needs a licensed collector when an animal dies. Martlands has provided fallen stock and ABP collection from its Burscough yard for farming families across this corner of the North West, and Crosby sits close enough to the depot that a prompt response is a matter of routine rather than a promise stretched thin.
What the Law Asks of Livestock Keepers Around Crosby
The Animal By-Products (Enforcement) (England) Regulations 2013 place a duty of care on the keeper of the animal, not on the size of the enterprise. Fallen stock must be collected by an approved operator without undue delay, and in practice that means arranging removal within twenty four hours of finding the animal. On-farm burial and burning have been unlawful in the United Kingdom since 2003, with only very limited exceptions for genuinely remote areas that no holding in Sefton comes close to meeting. There is no lower threshold below which the duty stops applying. Two ponies on an acre of grazing off Moor Lane carry the same obligation as a two hundred head dairy unit, and the enforcement position is identical.
This is the point that causes most of the difficulty around Crosby. A great many of the people keeping animals here are not registered farmers in any conventional sense. They are households with a paddock, riding schools, livery yards, hobby flock keepers and people who have taken on a few acres of rented grazing. They are subject to the Regulations in full, and the first many of them hear about it is when an animal dies and they start looking for someone to take it away.
The Holdings That Sit Behind a Crosby Postcode
The land around Crosby is some of the most productive in the country. The Sefton coastal plain carries grade one and grade two agricultural soil, and the farms at Little Crosby, Ince Blundell, Sefton village and out towards Lydiate work it hard for potatoes, salad and root crops. Livestock sits alongside that arable ground rather than dominating it, which produces a distinctive pattern of holdings. Cattle and sheep are grazed on rotation, on leys and headlands and on the wetter ground down towards the Alt, often on short tenancies and often some distance from where the keeper actually lives.
Closer to the built edge, the picture changes again. The urban fringe between Crosby, Netherton and Thornton carries a concentration of liveries, riding schools and small paddocks that is far higher than the acreage would suggest. Horses, ponies, a few goats, backyard poultry and pet sheep are kept in numbers across this ground. When one of them dies, the keeper needs the same licensed route as any commercial farm, and our goat and smallholder fallen stock collection guidance sets out how that works for keepers who have never had to arrange it before.
Why Public Access Changes the Job Around Crosby
An animal that dies on a fell in Cumbria may not be seen by anybody outside the farm. An animal that dies in a Crosby field very often will be. Public footpaths run through and alongside a great deal of the grazing here, the coastal path and the beach draw heavy foot traffic year round, and dog walking pressure on the Rimrose Valley and the Alt corridor is constant. A carcass left in the open on this ground is not simply a compliance problem waiting to be found at an inspection. It is visible, it attracts scavengers and dogs, and it generates complaints to the local authority within hours rather than weeks.
That changes the practical priorities. Keepers on holdings with public access need the animal moved to a hard standing point away from the footpath as soon as it is safe to do so, covered, and collected quickly rather than at the next convenient round. Where livestock is kept on ground the public reaches at all, the considerations set out in our guidance on open farms, petting farms and city farms apply directly, because the biosecurity and reputational exposure are the same whether visitors are paying to be there or simply walking a right of way.
Getting the ABP Category Right on a Crosby Holding
Category is decided by what the animal is, not by how the keeper thinks of it. Fallen ruminants, meaning cattle, sheep and goats, are handled as Category 1 ABP collection because of the specified risk material controls that sit under the TSE rules. That applies to a single pet ewe in a paddock exactly as it applies to a commercial flock. Fallen horses, ponies, pigs and poultry are ordinarily Category 2 ABP collection, as animals that have died other than by slaughter for human consumption.
There is one exception that matters a great deal on the urban fringe, where veterinary euthanasia is far more common than on a commercial livestock unit. An animal put down using barbiturates is Category 1 regardless of species, because the carcass carries residues of a prohibited substance. A pony euthanised by a vet in a Crosby paddock is therefore Category 1 material, and it must be declared as such when the collection is booked. Telling us what was administered is not an administrative nicety. It determines the disposal route the carcass is legally permitted to take, and getting it wrong puts the whole consignment on the wrong side of the Regulations.
Storage Before Collection When Ground Is Tight
Small holdings rarely have the space that makes this straightforward, and the coastal plain adds its own complication. Much of the grazing around Crosby drains through field ditches into the Alt system, so a carcass left where run-off can reach a watercourse creates an environmental problem on top of the ABP one. The animal should be moved to hard standing wherever it can be done safely, kept off bare soil, covered against scavengers and birds, and positioned somewhere a collection vehicle can actually reach without crossing a wet field or a domestic garden. Keepers on rented ground should establish that access point before they need it rather than on the morning they do.
Martlands provides leak proof containers to food waste and butchers waste customers, and for fallen stock the practical requirement is simply containment and access. A short conversation when the collection is booked usually resolves any doubt about where the vehicle can get to and what needs to happen before it arrives.
The Paperwork That Has to Exist Afterwards
Every Martlands collection produces a Commercial Document, and where a Waste Transfer Note applies that is issued too. These are the documents that prove the animal left the holding by a legal route and reached an approved processing facility. They matter at a Red Tractor assurance visit, at a local authority inspection, for ISO 14001 certification and for sustainability reporting, and they are the only evidence a keeper has that the duty was discharged. They should be retained and filed, not left in a jacket pocket. Bookings run through the KoLeCt system and Martlands is a member of the National Fallen Stock Company, so scheme members can have collections handled through their existing arrangements without a separate account.
For fallen cattle over forty eight months of age, BSE testing is a statutory requirement and Martlands operates as a DEFRA approved sampling and processing facility for that purpose. Samples are taken at the Burscough site under licence and submitted to APHA, so a Crosby keeper losing an older cow does not need to arrange testing separately or send the animal elsewhere. The site operates under Animal By-Products Licence APB/CCN21/373/8002, Waste Carrier Licence CB/QE5406MT and Site Licence EAWML/100236.
Arranging Collection From Crosby and the Wider Area
Crosby sits within our established Merseyside fallen stock collection round, and the same vehicles cover the ground north through the mosslands towards Southport fallen stock collection and inland along the M58 corridor. Because the Burscough depot is close, collections from this area do not depend on a long distance route being scheduled, which is what makes same day removal a realistic expectation for keepers here.
To arrange a collection, or to set up a standing arrangement for a livery yard or a grazing holding, call 01704 776977 and speak to somebody who knows the ground. If you would prefer to set out the details in writing first, you can contact us through the website, and for keepers who want to understand the wider service before committing to anything, our farm and fallen stock collection page sets out what is covered and how it operates.
